Brooke + James

Nursing school rundown!

2010-06-17T19:43:00.001-06:00

First day of school in full uniform.

Yes, I actually use ALL of these books! It took me a couple weeks to keep track of which book went with which class.

Orientation day the week before school started. I was so happy that day. It just felt right, you know?

Here are some thoughts and details of the last month!

Completed two tests so far! I've also done 2 of 8 clinicals. My rotations this semester are at the Huntsman Cancer Institute on the post-surgical floor.
Never had so many episodes of numb bum before.
Love the things I'm learning because it's all about the human body...all day long.
I love learning how I'll play a part in preventing or fixing pathologies of the human body.
I have an even greater respect for nurses...they have to know A LOT!
What did I used to do with my time, seriously?
The "shock and awe" of huge tests are a thing of the past since from now on there's one EVERY week between the 5 classes I have. This doesn't include care plans for clinicals or the other hmwk!
I sadly have to choose between running or watching a show or two with James.
Running has won the battle, but I sure miss those shows. *sniff*
It's a very good day when I get to sneak in a show or go for a quick date.
We get to cook/eat dinner together every single night...work, school or not and I love it!
James is off for the summer and reads or play games next to me while I study so we feel like we can still hang out.
My hair is usually curly now, no time to straighten it!
(Everyone seems to love it and think I spend a lot of time on it, so it's a win-win situation.)
I go to lab or clinical Monday through Wednesday then do homework till 10pm or midnight.
I'm in class 8:30-4pm Thursday and Friday. Homework on Thursdays evenings till 10ish.
I work every Fri, Sat, and Sunday night (with 2 Sunday nights off a month).
I cried the first two Fridays I had to go to work because I was NOT used to going without a break day in and day out. It was rough.
I didn't cry on the 3rd Friday, so we're making progress!
I go to church anyway and have had the best personal experiences since because of it. (*One exception...last Sunday I went extra long without sleep and couldn't stay awake so James had to bring me home after sacrament meeting!)
Now that I'm more adjusted I look forward to going to work on the weekends, I love it there!
James is the best housewife ever! I do the laundry and cooking, he does everything else!
Had a panic attack the day before school started and seriously considered backing out.
Had lots of doubts the first week or two. Is this really what I want to do?
They scare you that first week and then once you get settled, you realize it's definitely doable.
Now I LOVE it and can't wait to be a nurse. It's who I am and can't imagine me without it!
I have made some great friends and I love being part of a cohort for the whole 1.5 years.
It's nice to live in the moment. No constantly thinking of what's next -I'm in the what's next!
I feel so much joy and satisfaction. This carries me through the challenging parts.
Can't wait for all the cool things I still get to learn.
You want to know the most ironic part of all? Since starting school.... we read scriptures every night without fail, we hold FHE each Monday, our house is always clean, I always pick up my stuff right when I'm done with it (never used to happen), I get my homework done on time, I have an A average so far, we make dinner every night, we eat healthier than ever (fruits, veggies, beans, legumes, whole grains, etc.) and I run more consistently than before....WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF BEING THIS BUSY EARLIER?

1 month down already!

My work here is done.

2010-05-06T20:00:00.001-06:00

So I finished my last day as a TA today. Wow. What an experience. When I look back on that very first day last August of 2009, I can't believe how much I've grown. I was nervous! But now it's kind of old hat. It was still a little bit of a struggle clear till the end, but it definitely got easier. And I don't think anyone -except James- will ever really know the time I put into the bi-weekly review sessions and grading those tests! I really threw myself into it and I feel like I flourished. I feel like I don't always do that with everything, so I'm proud of what I accomplished. I will really miss it. I enjoyed hearing the exact same Human Physiology lectures three semesters in a row and I really enjoyed helping so many students understand it better! I love the human body. I didn't get bored once!
At our TA Holiday party at Matt's house in December 2009.

I have learned a lot from the professor, Matt Linton (highly recommended if you ever need to take Human Phys). Not only is he a great lecturer, but he is an avid runner (who will most likely qualify for Boston this fall) and I attribute almost 100% of my growth as a runner this past year to him! (And the Garmin, can't forget the blessed Garmin). He always had such great helpful tips, put up with my many questions, taught me how to push myself a little harder and always asked me how things are going to keep me accountable. I will always be so grateful for this mentoring I received! I will miss that as well!

Matt and KristyAnn. They have such a cute house and a cute family! (four kids total)

James and I at the party.
Aww...cute...:)

I got "the" letter...

2010-03-30T01:15:00.004-06:00

And the first words are "Congratulations on your acceptance to the University of Utah Accelerated Nursing Program." HOT DOG! It actually came as an e-mail about 2 weeks earlier than I had expected. James and I were in a hurry trying to make dinner and get out the door (me to work, him to school). I saw the e-mail come in and I thought that surely it wasn't an acceptance/denial e-mail! I finally got logged in...still in a blur...and then I heard James exclaim YES! because he saw the congratulations part first before I could even figure out if it really was "the" letter or not! I'll start May 17th and go four straight semesters, graduating the first week of August 2011.

Besides excitement, the emotion I felt the most was relief. This means I'll be done NEXT year with everything! No more school! And it means a lot of other things...I'll let you decide what that means....he he. :)

Apply for Nursing School...check!

2010-01-16T01:29:00.011-07:00

Yesterday was the day! I submitted my application to the U of U's Accelerated Nursing Program. It is so entirely weird to think it has come and gone. Like always, all night at work tonight I keep thinking I need to work on something huge and then I remember that it's already done. It's actually a little anti-climatic. I guess for the whole year and half I've been preparing, I must have thought when it got to this point my whole life would change at the click of the "submit" button, but life is just the same as ever! Now we just wait! I should find out in March, I will let you know either way. :)

I've probably said this before, but I never knew this decision would bring such a positive change into my life! It was really hard to go forward back then, especially since the actual program wasn't for another TWO YEARS from that time! I was totally stepping into the dark. And now I'm glad I followed my heart because I have experienced so many good things in the last 1.5 years, if it all ended tomorrow with no nursing degree, it would all be totally worth it! I have met people that I hope will be my friends for life, I treasure the knowledge I've gained, I'm grateful to have my job that I love, and I feel like I'm a better person because of it all. It has been very tough at times, but that's what makes it so good, right? If you feel unsettled and want to try something in YOUR life, you should just take the leap and try it! However big or small it may be. And whether or not you succeed, the journey itself is really all that matters.

If I get accepted, I'll start this May and be done next August. Thanks everyone for all your support and encouragement!

Running

2009-12-18T01:39:00.010-07:00

In my last post I started talking about running. I thought it deserved it's own post!

I'm at work right now and the reason I'm blogging is because my back and legs are so tired from my run today (followed by no sleep before working) that I needed a little rest from all the walking I do around here!

Despite the fact that this happens, I ALWAYS feel better if I go for a run. I try to go every day except Sunday, unless I'm too hammered. I just try and listen to what my body is telling me it can and can't do.

James gave me a Garmin 405cx in September and it has changed my life forever. I now know exactly what my pace is and how many miles I've run, what my heart rate is and my intensity level, etc. It gives me objective data and now I can continually improve on this data.

I ran 9 miles on Tuesday just because it made me so happy and I didn't want to stop! I had worked the night before and fantasized about a new route all that night at work (from my house to City Creek Canyon) and couldn't wait to run it. Don't worry, I can't always do that and it doesn't always make me THAT happy. Actually, yes it does, but I don't always go that far...for now at least.

The reason I said "for now" is because (and I would never tell anyone this) since my junior year of high school I've wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Thanks to my Garmin and the improvements I've seen, I'm starting to see a glimmer of hope that this goal could actually become my reality! So I might be running some high mileage in the future.

In order to qualify for the Boston Marathon, I would need to run a marathon in 3 hours 40 minutes. To give you an idea of where I'm at, a 3:40 marathon is about 8:30 min/mile pace and I ran that 9 mile run at 10:20 min/mile pace going at an easy rate. So far I can get 8:30min/mile for 3-4 miles with no uphill. That's only 22-23 more miles to go!

I'm thinking it may be a few years until I qualify, but I'm OK with that! That way I can build up my mileage slowly over time and stay injury free.

I am so in love with and addicted to running it's not even funny. It's been with me through the good times and the bad. It keeps me sane and clears my head. Oh yah, and I guess it's good for me! :)

Random

2009-12-18T01:23:00.004-07:00

I have thought for about 4 weeks now "what should I blog about??" I decided I've gone too long and just need to post random stuff, I hope that's OK. Here's what's been happening with us!

James just finished his last final last night and I was so proud of him! He really does not like school (because of how much it takes him away from home) and with working full-time, it's quite a sacrifice for him.

We spent a quiet evening at home last night after his final, him playing computer and me catching up on house stuff (dishes, cleaning, cooking, wrapping gifts) and then we hung out together. It was extremely rejuvenating and peaceful. I love when I have time to get caught up on "home" stuff.

While I was doing the cooking and cleaning I listened to Jesus the Christ on my iPod trying to finish up by the deadline for our Bishop's challenge (Dec. 24th). I felt the Spirit so strongly and felt so much love for the Savior last night. I almost feel like I knew him while he was living on the earth. It is truly an inspired book. I like the last chapters the best. (I'll have to admit, I don't always pay attention and some of the information is not interesting to me or it's too over-my-head!).

I work 3 nights a week now -every week- from 7pm to 7:30am (I used to do 3 shifts one week and 2 shifts the next) and I have never appreciated my home so much since I'm gone a lot, but I still love my job.

The 4 nights that I'm actually home are so wonderful to me, especially when I can stay at home and just get in my comfy clothes, clean, cook and hang out with James with NO errands to run, no doing going here and there for this and that. And there's nothing better than getting a full night's sleep every now and again to catch up on missed sleep!

Sometimes the reason I get so little sleep is because I'm addicted to running and I choose that over sleeping before I need to go in for a night shift. There, I said it. I know you could never guess that haha. I said to James the other day "I wonder if running will ever know how much I sacrifice for it."

What we've been up to.

2009-10-10T21:14:00.010-06:00

We've shopped at Costco.

We took a picture of our selves in the parking lot of Costco in front of the pretty sunset.

We made the trek yet again from our car to our apartment...and of course James refused to make two trips.

We considered going out of town for Labor Day but decided to have a "staycation" instead. One night we went to Macaroni Grill (yum!).

Did I mention yum?

Another night we went to the Gateway for a dinner and a movie.

We saw The Proposal (loved it).

And then ate at The SkyBox sports grill.

We visited Shay after she had her wisdom teeth out.

And also made fun of her.

We shopped to replace our broken vacuum and refused to get one that was this skinny.

We discovered that Nielsen's accepts debit cards (finally!).

And celebrated the whole way home.

We had an impromptu, self-taken family photo session.

We made our first homemade bread.

We hosted James' brother Dave from Florida for five nights.

And had lots of fun, games and food while he was here.

We made our homemade salsa with tomatoes from my grandparents' garden.

We went to the annual Peacock reunion and stayed at a beautiful cabin.

We went to the annual Smith family reunion.

We made banana nut bread for the first time.

And the smell was intoxicatingly wonderful.

I made a beautiful, yummy, triple-decker club sandwich for the first time before James went to the Priesthood session. So delicious, yet so easy!

We are doing well and just plugging along! Thanks for stopping by. :)

Just call me Teacher.

2009-08-28T14:35:00.011-06:00

...Teacher's Aide that is.

I have now wrapped up my first week of being a Teacher's Assistant for Human Physiology taught by Dr. Matt Linton at the U. Let me tell you, it's quite the experience! Monday was my first day and I was completely horrified (I won't mention the fact that all I had to do was stand up in front of everyone for 20 seconds to introduce myself...to my credit...it was a huge auditorium of 200 or so people). I just don't have the "guts" and confidence I used to, you know! But I got through that day. I then got through my first office hour that's held once a week. Then came Friday...the biggie. I had to facilitate an hour long discussion in the above stated HUGE auditorium all by myself....and my laptop...OK and a humongous projector...in front of lots of people. Woo wee! Talk about a nerve-racking adrenaline rush. I think I did pretty good for the most part...I'm trying to not dwell on the many things that went wrong and just focus on the fact that I really did give them good information like my TA had done for me. Now I just need to get past the next 16 Fridays where I'll have to do this all over again (minus a few breaks).

I'm just glad this first week is over with and past me. I had so much anxiety this week! And it didn't help that I slept through the 3rd day of this class due to the fact I forgot to change my alarm to "AM" after getting home from work that morning...and the professor specifically asked that the TA's never miss class! Aaahhh! Since that day I can't sleep very well because I'm so panicked I'm going to miss the class again. Even this morning, being Saturday, James said I woke up at 6am in a panic that we had missed something (none of which I remember). I'm starting to relax a little now the worst is over. And it helped that the professor now calls me "Sleepy Head"...at least now I know he doesn't hate me.

It's been quite the eye-opening experience. Here's what I have learned so far:

Teachers are awesome. Enough said. Their job is a lot harder than I imagined. -It's easy to take things very personal (like when people leave early, people have a look of complete boredom on their faces and if people are laughing..."are they laughing at me??!?!")
Teachers pay attention to faces and names and it doesn't take much to get to know the students if the students put forth the effort.
Teachers WANT people to come up to them and ask questions and e-mail them...anything! They want to be able to help the students in any way.
I need to give more positive feedback to my teachers and TA's (i.e., "I learned a lot today", "thanks for the help", etc.) because I had the following thoughts running through my mind the whole time I was talking: they all think I'm dumb and want to leave, I'm going way too slow, now I'm going way too fast, do they all hate me?!?!?, are they learning anything?
Continuing with that same thought, I told the students to e-mail me if they wanted the PowerPoint Presentation I went over in the discussion. Since then, I've received several e-mails and some of them say "Thank you so much for what you said today, it really helped." Oh man! That means the world to me. It helps me not feel so down on myself after the discussion...you just never know how you did, you know????
It takes a lot longer to prepare for a "lecture" than I ever anticipated! I'm so glad that I was well prepared though. Being at the front of a HUGE room with lots of people does funny things to you!
Teaching is actually very fulfilling. And they aren't kidding when they say the teacher learns more than the student.

This nursing goal I'm pursing is taking me on paths I never would have traveled on my own! I had no idea what I was getting into when I wrote my "start of something good" post...OK, OK I knew it was going to be involved, but didn't realize the full extent of it, ya know? In order to get into the U of U (quickly), you have to have a lot of leadership and volunteer experience. And even then less that 50% of applicants actually get in. This TA position counts as one of my leadership experiences. I'll write later about my volunteer stuff, too. I'm actually really excited for some of the things I'm involved with.

We're coming down to the wire now! Applications become available in November of THIS year!

Brain malfunctions.

2009-08-26T19:50:00.004-06:00

OK, so this is my 3rd post today (they're all quick I promise), I must be in the mood.

Working nights has made for quite the entertainment in our household. I usually don't feel too tired, but my actions sometimes say otherwise. For instance here are some things I have done recently:

I left a note for myself to check on a "pre-equisting" condition with our insurance. The next day James saw the note and asked what "pre-equisting" meant.

As I'm typing I often insert words like "quick" instead of "kick" or weird things like that.

My grammar has gone out the window and has run far, far away! I used to be very good at grammar and spelling...not anymore! (you should have seen how many corrections I had to make to this post)

Just today James called me on my cell and I answered happily "Hi Seriously!" It was if my brain went through the following thought process: we need a word that starts with S and it has to be one she says a lot... It then blurted out seriously instead of Sweetie.

I never know what day it is since I go into work one day and come out the next. I also can't recall words and stutter a lot then, too. So when I say "I'm retarded" I really am NOT joking!

So that's great..I'm even more air-headish than normal. Oh well! Hopefully it doesn't have lasting effects! I still will probably never work days. Why? I love the down times where there's nothing to do but read or talk to co-workers (I know that sounds incredibly lazy and irresponsible, but it's true!! I usually have all my work done beforehand, don't worry), I love the quiet and dimmly-lit atmosphere and I love the people who work nights. Basically, I just love my job. Here's to more entertainment!

Clean dishes.

2009-08-26T19:38:00.004-06:00

So this is what I saw as I walked in the door this morning after work and couldn't help but giggle. Needless to say we got behind on our dishwashing with the start of school and adjusting to new schedules. The picture just doesn't do it justice - you wouldn't believe the balancing and arranging he had going on here (I have no idea how he got it to all stay without falling). As you recall, it probably looked similar to this before it became this:

He is such a great house-wife-husband. Although, he's got quite the high standard to follow being as his brother Rob makes brownies, homemade bread and who knows what else!

Retired.

2009-08-26T18:40:00.005-06:00

Dr. Larry Smith

My dear Grandpa Smith retired this year as a Vice-Principal in the Davis County school district.

He served at these schools:

Woods Cross High School

South Davis Jr. High

Milcreek Jr. High

Mueler Park Jr. High

(and maybe more)

It makes me sad and happy at the same time. Happy because now he has time to do what he loves most: working in his HUGE garden and helping family members. Sad because he can never be replaced, he is just that valuable. He had such a way with kids, especially troubled kids (I'm starting to tear up right now). He could take a kid that was struggling -and therefore messing around- and would give them the love, guidance and benefit-of-doubt they needed to straighten up. He has the perfect mixture of wisdom, discipline and humor.

I was lucky enough to have him there at South Davis during my 7-9th grade years. I loved knowing he was just down the hall and I loved seeing him every day! I even got called to his office one time for being out in the hall when I was supposed to be in class...darn that Mr. Vick... Luckily my g'pa just laughed at me when I walked into his office. I was kinda scared!

His graduation with a PhD from University of Wyoming in 1966.

This is my grandma with my mom and uncle in 1966.

OK, so now I'm full out crying. I'm just so grateful to have him as a pillar in my life. He and my grandma have provided so much stability and love, I wouldn't be who I am without them.

One cool note...recently I was reading the letters he wrote home to his mom while he was on his mission in Germany. He was deciding wether or not to go into dentristy or education. Either way, he would have been marvelous. It was the coolest thing ever to read his words as a struggling young adult trying to figure his life out and then to know his entire legacy and now see him retiring in his chosen field of education. Wow.

Another class to check off the list.

2009-08-22T09:51:00.004-06:00

So this is me and my lab partner Ashley, I know we are lookin' pretty hot, right? Why did I take a picture of us at lab? Well...it was a monumental occasion: the last day of Chemistry lab ever. Don't get me wrong, I love to learn. I just don't love the lab portion. OK, except for maybe the one in this picture - we're "making" soap.

Finishing this class was huge for me because it means I can now apply for the nursing program in January! I still have 2 more pre-req's to finish, but this was the last of the classes that have to be done before I turn in the application (you can do the other 2 while waiting to hear if you got accepted or not). Is it bad that I already most likely have ulcers worrying about getting into the program?

*Please let me get in the first time.*

Zesty.

2009-07-31T02:21:00.005-06:00

Someone reminded me about orange zest today. She taught me how to do it (take the peel and grate it through a very fine grater for those of you - who like me - have forgotten) and I ended up trying it in some cranberry muffins tonight.

Why has no one told me about this other side of heaven sooner?

And not that this matters since the taste is most important, this is what I have found about some of the benefits of orange peel:

"A class of compounds found in citrus fruit peels called polymethoxylated flavones (PMFs) have the potential to lower cholesterol more effectively than some prescription drugs, and without side effects.."

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=37

Sunbeams

2009-07-27T08:28:00.004-06:00

We had a bitter-sweet day yesterday at church. It was our last day to teach Sunbeams! Sweet because now we can go to Priesthood and Relief Society (we've been in Primary since 2005), but very bitter because we won't be able to see these sweet little kids as often...I'm getting more sad just thinking about it. It has been so fun to see them grow. It's amazing how much 3 and 4 year olds know.

We'll miss the funny things Seth says and Brock calling James "Peacock" thinking that's his first name - cutest thing ever. "Hey Peacock!" They all are so very cute and sweet in their own ways.

I had a feeling we were being released soon so I started taking pictures towards the end each week. Enjoy!

James playing their favorite - the fishing game of course. He is the most amazing teacher and I'll miss watching him teach a lesson every other Sunday.

5th Week NICU Review...

2009-07-15T12:37:00.008-06:00

I LOVE IT!!

So I know I love my job when:

I dream and think about it when I'm not there.
I consider my co-workers true friends and look forward to seeing them; I also like to get to know the ones I haven't met yet.
When James drops me off I'm like "See ya later!!" instead of almost in tears since we can't sleep in the same bed that night. I do like my days off, but I don't mind going to work! I deal with the lack of sleep and the fact that I have dementia most of the time when I'm not working due to said lack of sleep and the fact that I can't sleep the nights that I'm home. It's a good thing I love my job!

Some of my favorite things:

I'm totally in love with those babies! I love it when the nurses call for my help.
I love it when I'm feeding them on my lap and they have to take "breaks" and breathe "in out in out" really quick through their button noses. Cutest thing ever.
My all time favorite is "catching" the babies right after they're born to take them to the nice NICU beds and then stand there to watch the awesome nurses work their magic. So far I've done it 6 times. Wish I could do it more! The smallest I have caught was 540 grams (about 1 lb 2 oz). They say there's been babies less than a pound before! One little girl that was very very tiny just left at 5 months old and she was perfectly normal (from what I saw).

Things I've learned:

Babies can unfortunately get very sick very quick. It's truly scary. It doesn't happen as often as I thought it would, but it's still always sad when it does.
Preemie babies are much different than full-term babies in a lot of ways, yet my thinking has been scewed so much that I assume all babies are preemies and have to go to the NICU. I think it is an amazing miracle when I'm reminded that they can go full term and be born big, healthy and well skilled in eating, breathing, and everything else full-term babies can do...and they can go home after a few days without any feeding tubes or cords or monitors. Wierd!
I'm so accustomed to the 3-5 lb range that when I see or hold one of our 8 pounders there, I think "they've got to be about 15 lbs"...they just seem so entirely monstrous to me! If I have a baby of my own anything near what James was (almost 11 pounds) I think I will pass out and have a hard time with it at first!

Things I've seen:

Babies beat ALL odds and do everything opposite then what everyone thinks (for the better).
An adoptive couple fly in from out of state to meet their new little girl, I was so glad to be in the room for that because I know so many of you in the same situation. It really touched me.
I actually haven't seen any babies die yet, but it does happen, thankfully not often. What a sad, sad thing...precious babies should not have to die. :(

As for everything else...
I'm taking 2 classes right now and it's going fine so far. Not really enjoying the fact that I have to put in about 10-20 hours a week for chemistry (and double that before a test), but that will be over in 3 weeks and I should never have to take chemistry again! And great news, the "pinch" in my back is almost entirely gone! I can actually breathe, sneeze, hiccup without sharp pain, who knew. I've been going to the chiro 3 times a week for over a month now and he is just great, why did I not do this sooner?? We've done some fun things this summer and I will post pictures as soon as I get the rest from James' memory card. I hope you're all having a great summer!

Does this look crooked to you?

2009-06-05T15:36:00.007-06:00

So over the years I get these "snags" in my back, which I thought was normal for everyone. I always thought it was a bone that needed to pop or something like that, so I would wait for it to heal in a few days. This last time it has been over a month and a half, so I gave up dealing with the pain. I went to a chiropractor for the first time in my life. I figured he'd just give my back a few pops and we'd be good to go. He started asking me all these questions. Then he got the X-rays back and this is what I saw on my next visit. I can't believe that my head is tilted that much! Isn't your head supposed to be straight?? Yah, it is...I'm retarded. He said it's Torticollis and those snag feelings are actually pinched nerves. I have about 5 vertebra that are twisted a little and because the nerves can't send messages properly, eventually the muscles pull different on both sides and you get the tilted head and curved spine - and the pinched nerves. He talked about other issues it causes and it just explained a lot! And this whole time I figured I was just getting old really fast. :) Phew!

So he said he can probably straighten it most of the way in about 6 weeks or so. I'll put the before and after X-rays up once we get to that point. Relief here I come, yay! I don't know about you, but I just love getting my back and neck popped. The more pops the merrier.

NICU

2009-05-29T12:59:00.003-06:00

Me on my first night shift in front of the U of U Hospital that's almost done being remodeled.

Wow, what a week! I started my first week at the Newborn ICU at the U of U. Before I started I had tons of questions like will I get to hold the babies very much? Is working straight night shifts hard? Here are some thoughts I've had over my first 36 hours working there:

I hold babies every shift, sometimes 10-15 times a night!
You get to know the babies real quick and you bond with them...you know what works and what doesn't.
There are a few "fussy" babies that need comforting all night. They are usually the older ones who were born at 23 weeks and they are now just past full-term. I would be sick of being there too if it were me!
Most of the babies calm down the moment they can tell you're going to pick them up and you haven't even touched them yet...best part in the WHOLE WORLD is when they snuggle up to you and fall right asleep once they get some lovin'.
One baby on the floor has a really hard time being soothed and she cries much of the night. It's a huge success when you get her to fall asleep (I did it last night - we're tight now).
The nurses are a-m-a-z-i-n-g. They know more and do more than any of the parents will ever know. I totally respect and look up to them. I hope to be like them someday (in about 2 years to be exact).
I can't believe how close the brand-new babies are to death's door - they have one foot in life and one foot in death, yet modern miracles and skillful nurses keep them alive every minute of every day until they can survive on their own.
Yes, I do get somewhat sick of the crying and holding sometimes, but I wouldn't be normal if I didn't.
I quickly get over being sick of it and think about the individual babies constantly when I'm not with them.
Most of my job actually consists of restocking supplies, getting the beds set up for new admits, cleaning, running errands, organizing the linen room. I just help the nurses as needed. Sometimes I'm helping the nurses all night with fussy babies, sometimes they don't need my help at all. (I don't like those nights as much!)
Working nights is easier than I thought as far as being tired (except for the 1st night, I thought I was going to pass out).
Much to my surprise, it actually gets easier the 2nd and 3rd shift in a row because you've slept that day after you're previous night shift.
My back, legs and feet do get tired from walking so much, but my breaks usually make that go away.
I feel like I'm dead to the world because I'm awake when everyone is asleep and sleeping during the day when you're awake.
I have my window all blacked out with blankets and pillows. This helps me sleep about 4-5 hours and then I'm pretty much done and can't sleep any more since my brain knows it's really daytime. So far it's been enough sleep.
I feel like I've already worked there my whole life.
I plan to work very hard so they can't live without me and hire me as a nurse when I graduate. :) So that means working the full 12 hours to get everything in tip top shape and no laziness or sleeping, etc. like a couple of CNA's do.
The hardest part for me so far is to see the babies with brain damage and know they will have difficulties their whole lives. There are two on our floor right now. It's interesting to me that as babies, they still act the same and need the same things the other babies do - food, warmth and love.
I will see death unfortunately. They have to take one of the babies off life-support on Monday. She has a twin brother who is thriving very well though.
I don't really get to touch the brand-new ones, but I will when they get more to be 35+ weeks and they're moved to the other side of the unit. It's amazing how small they are. There is a 23-weeker who is on an oscillating machine that vibrates oxygen into her lungs over 600 times a minute!
On the one hand it makes me totally baby hungry and then totally glad I don't have kids on the other!
I can't wait to have one of my very own and see what he or she is like!
The only bad thing about holding the babies is none of them know how to smile yet. They make cute noises and mouth movements, but not a ton of eye contact. -Even if they're over 6 weeks old because technically they're just barely reaching what would have been full-term.
I really don't do anything over the 3 days I'm working...just sleeping or resting then go to work. It's quite the routine change! I will now just have to do all my errands, chores and homework during the latter part of the week. James has been great to do the dishes and run errands for me to pick up the slack.
Oh....speaking of James....ahhhh....I miss him!!!! Between my chemistry class and his job and my night shifts, I've only seen him a total of an hour since Monday!! I love his guts and can't wait to see him for the next 4 days. I miss him so much, I started crying when I found his Costco card unexpectantly and looked at his picture on the back....

Well that's all I can think of for now! Feel free to ask any questions and I'll answer them in another post. I will keep you posted!

Blast from the past.

2009-05-04T22:26:00.005-06:00

Since last summer, I've been working on scanning in all of my pictures into digital format. I'm now working on my grandma's pictures and will hopefully have her's and my mom's done by the end of this week before work starts.

It has been quite the experience! I have had so much fun seeing me, James and my family growing up over the years. I've relived so many great memories! I love it.

I just wanted to share this funny picture with you from 1992 - I was 10 years old. Notice what me and Tyler are wearing and how we're BOTH wearing them. I bet most of you wore your overalls like this. OK...maybe not. Who started this trend anyway and why? Oh, and don't forget my 80's/90's bangs. This is just classic....

Me, my mom in the back with my grandpa, my aunt Celeste in front holding my little sister Shay and my older brother Tyler. We're on the Mark Twain Riverboat in Mississippi.

"Spicy"

2009-04-27T20:03:00.004-06:00

Have you tried Rubios? I got a free coupon a few months ago and since then we've gone a few times because we're hooked on the Grilled Gourmet Tacos - the steak ones. Yummy! James especially likes them because they remind him of tacos he would eat on his mission. We have to share a meal though because they're kind of pricey just fyi - their only draw back.

Well anyway, every time we go, they ask us for our name. Like always, we say "Peacock". They always give us a funny look, shrug their shoulders and put the name down. And then when they call our name, they say "PICA" (prounounced peeka) and all the people who speak Spanish look at us and snicker. When we look at our ticket, they have actually written down the word "Pica". Every time. So why is this so funny? Well the cashiers don't know the word "Peacock" so they think we're saying "Pica". Pica means "spicy" in Spanish. It's become our little joke and we laugh every time they call our name now. So funny.

Next time we need to say "pavo real" (the word for peacock), but I think I prefer to be called SPICY.

Apparently they think we're pretty hot at Rubios. ;)

New Born Intensive Care Unit

2009-04-23T07:43:00.004-06:00

It came. It finally came. I got my job at the New Born ICU and will finally work for the U of U! For those of you who don't know, I contacted these guys back in December and since then I have e-mailed them at least every month to let them know I was still interested. Well it worked! They contacted me last Friday to see if I was still interested, called me Monday to set up an interview for Tuesday and I got the offer on Wednesday. Wow. If only I would have known it would go down like that! :) I was getting to the end of my rope so to speak! I finally gave up on trying for any CNA jobs and just started looking for full-time day jobs so we can have insurance once again. When that wasn't working out either, I told James that I was never going to work again and why can't I just work at the NBICU?!?

So what does this mean? Well, if I would have gotten a full-time office job, I probably would have had to give up nursing because 2 of my 3 pre-req's are only offered during the day. This means I now can for sure pursue the nursing goal all while keeping this same job! Yay!

This is what my floor looks like. I won't get to hold or touch the babies very often, except for when they cry and need comforting...ohh...that will be my favorite ever, who wouldn't love that? I'll mostly be setting up beds for new babies and I'll basically be a "runner" for the nurses. Oh, and ever once in awhile, I'll be the one that passes the just-born baby from the doctor to the nurses right when they're born! They literally have a window from the delivery room to the ICU room and that's where I'll stand to do the pass off. Now THAT will be cool.

MY PLAN:

Work my night shifts at the NBICU (that's all they had, but I'll take it!)
Get my last 3 classes done (1 this summer, 2 in the fall)
Continue to work on volunteer projects
Continue to work on leadership projects
Apply for the accelerated nursing program in January 2010
**Hopefully get in**
Start the program in May of 2010
Finish in 16 months...wa la!
Move on with our lives once and for all :)

I'm so glad it's finally less than a year away from application time, yay! I decided this last year, so it's very slow in coming, but I'm making very good use of my time.

Totally obsessed.

2009-04-10T06:46:00.002-06:00

So my birthday was last week and we had a great time. James took the day off work and we played Dance Dance, ordered pizza and ate it in bed while watching TV, went to Confessions of a Shopaholic, then ate a yummy dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Such a fun day!

I just wanted to show you what my ingenious husband gave me right when I woke up that morning...

It's the Flip Mino - the HD version. LOVE IT!!! I've had it since last Thursday (the 2nd) and have videoed at least 2, maybe 3 hours of my life and the world around me. It is the most priceless material gift I own besides my camera....oh, and the computer I have to process it all would have to be included, too! They're normally $230 bucks, but thanks to James' awesome deal finding skills online, he got it for $155.

The BEST part of all? It fits in my purse so I can whip it out anytime I want (and believe me, I have).

Yeup, James is definitely an "enabler". He has totally fed my obsession and addiction to capturing as much of life as possible. I just can't get enough of it. Now people can hate me even more now that I have a camera in tote AND a video recorder!

A slice of heaven.

2009-04-08T12:46:00.002-06:00

So this post is totally random. I just wanted to express some thoughts. For some reason, ever since Saturday night I have felt so incredibly happy and richly blessed. It's almost like all of my worries, fears, anxieties, doubts have been lifted from my mind for a little bit. I know it won't last forever, but I'm so grateful to feel so grateful right now. :) It's almost as if everything in my world is perfect right at this moment.

I have the most amazing family and friends - people who inspire me and touch my life daily in ways they don't even image or realize. I love my home and all that I have. I love who I am and the lessons I have learned so far in my 27 years are priceless and I wouldn't change any of the past because of what I've learned. I truly look forward to the rest of my life on this earth. I am grateful for the knowledge I have that my Heavenly Father created me, knows me, helps me and loves me.

What a Wonderful Life.

Some of my favorite things!

2009-03-20T06:25:00.004-06:00

So I am currently still searching for a job. I've opened my search to full-time, office jobs as well and have sent in lots and lots of applications. So far I've only had 3 interviews! Just another testament to how slow the economy is...it's never taken me this long to get a job. However, I do feel extremely blessed that we can still pay all of our bills thanks to James' job and our 2 trips to plasma every week. I have no idea how people do it that don't have any income right now who are applying for jobs. It's rough out there!

But anyways, that's not what I wanted to post about. =0) Although it's been a personal struggle for me to not be able to find a job yet, I have felt that life has been so full and happy lately. I've started exercising more regularly again (which I LOVE) and I've been able to spend a lot of time with family and friends. And who doesn't love this weather lately?? My absolute favorite has been spending time at my Grandma Smith's house. She called me and wanted to know if I could help her with some yard work since they are so busy remodeling the house (which is going to look awesome by the way). I was so glad she called. From my earlier posts you know by now that I used to work for them in the greenhouse and in their huge yard. I loved that job and it's been so fun do that again. There's just something about being outside + being in the yard + being at Grandma's house... if I could do that every day for the rest of my life I would be so happy.

The other day when I was there, my brother, sister and dad happened to be there also! It was seriously so fun! My dad was there to put in a gas line for the new fireplace and Ty and Shay came to hang out, too. I didn't get much work done because I was talking too much to everyone.

They have a huge backyard with a huge pond that my brother and grandpa built. In this picture, I'm up on the waterfall part of the pond. We're just beginning the process of de-winterizing it! I'll have to post pictures when it's done. It always looks amazing.

I'm such a nerd posing for pictures - I'm not even cutting anything in this picture. Luckily my sister humored me and took pictures since I can't take them of myself!

Love, love this picture! This is what my dad does on a daily basis (he's a plumber) and he's extremely talented at EVERY thing (and has every tool imaginable, I love it). If you need any remodeling or plumbing work done, he is definitely the guy to call. His name is Dan Robison and his number is 801-292-7252. Sorry for that shameless plug, but he really is so good at what he does! I'm pretty darn proud of him! :)

Here's where they're at so far. I love their house...the huge windows and the view are awesome. I will put up before and after pictures so you can see how awesome it looks when it's done. And take special note of their carpet, it's 42 years old!

We're eating dinner. This is one of my favorite memories since I can remember. I feel so blessed to have such awesome Grandparents...aaaggghhh...I just can't say enough so I'll stop there!!!! Anyone who knows them knows what I'm talking about. You definitely get more than just physical nourishment when you eat at their house.

Love this picture too! Ty, my dad and Shay. So fun!

I'm going to post a lot more pictures on Facebook since it's easier to put them up there. So go and check out my spring album and you can see what we've been up to!

Our Wedding

2009-02-25T22:13:00.007-07:00

I can't believe February is almost over! It seems like just a couple of days ago I set out to blog about "our story". So this is the last post of the series and to be honest, I'm feeling very narcissistic because of having so many pictures of myself up! But...I keep reminding myself that I love to see pictures on all of your blogs, so I hope you've enjoyed it. I have really enjoyed writing down our story like this, it has brought back so many wonderful memories! I would love to read your stories as well!

One of our engagement pictures.

When we first came out of the temple.

I LOVED seeing all of my friends and family!

I was lucky enough to have my mom do my flowers!

She did a great job. I loved how she did my cake.

This picture doesn't do our tables justice, but this is basically what they looked like. My colors were red, black and silver. I was very happy with that choice!

Our china, which I love.

My mom had the great idea of hiring a harpist for our reception music.

Loved it! It was perfect.

This one is hilarious. Soooo tired...

Apparently I really got into the whole throwing the bouquet thing, look at that form!

I loved that they blew bubbles!

So as you have probably noticed, I loved everything last thing about my wedding. Everything went well, it looked great and it was so wonderful to share that day with everyone. I frequently wish I could relive that day again!

We stayed at the Anniversary Inn and then woke up at about 4:30 the next morning to catch a flight. James surprised me with a cruise for our Honeymoon! It was so fun. Maybe I'll post those pictures later when this blog has had a break from so many pictures of just us!

The Mission Years.

2009-02-17T15:12:00.011-07:00

Well this post isn't going to be nearly as long...or as sappy. Why? Because it's when James was on his mission! Hardest 2 years of my life! BUT...it was also a great time of growth, self discovery and education for both of us and neither of us would change it for anything. That said, I do NOT recommend it!

On James' roof where we often went to watch the sunset. This is 6 days before he left.

Right after he was set apart.

Eating lunch in Provo before going to the MTC. Look at all the support he had! Shhh...don't tell anyone, but we secretly held hands under the table while we ate. Or rather we held on to dear life until our hands turned white while we tried to stuff food into our mouths...however you want to call it.

This is for you Marci, look how little Cayden is!!

And here we are, 2 months later at the airport to send him off

(obviously this was before Sept 11th).

This one's for you Juliann! I love how she's looking at him. I can't believe she's old enough now to get baptized this year and Cayden was baptized already! Wow.

And here are some of the main things that happened while James was in Mexico:

He learned to speak Spanish fluently and learned a lot of about the Mexican culture.

He lived in some of the dirtiest cities possible (this isn't one of them) and will never let me go to those cities. He also had his backpack stolen (which contained his digital camera) and was held at knife point on the micro bus. Good times!

The fateful September 11th happened just 2 months after he arrived in Mexico.

I was heavily involved in Institute and did everything I should like hanging out, dating, etc. It was all just a show until James got home to be honest so people would quit saying that I needed to date and be with friends more!

He received lots of letters and packages from all of us. Here he's opening my package on Christmas Day. Notice his living conditions!

My dear great-grandparents passed away within a year of each other.

We had the winter Olympics.

He sent home lots of pictures with poses like this to impress me.

He taught and baptized lots of people. I love this picture of him in his baptism clothes!

My dear Grandma passed away from liver cancer.

I graduated the week before he got home.

We had a very awkward greeting at the airport. I shouldn't have gone, doh! But of course, I have to see and experience everything first hand.

This was after his homecoming. Still a little awkward and notice the bandage on my forehead from James hitting me in the head during a basketball game, causing me to get about 50 stitches - no joke! I still have a huge scar that's hidden under my side bangs.

Aaaahhhhh....back to normal. Yay!

Around June or so, James encouraged me to go on a mission for two reasons: #1 he wanted to get some school done and save up some money, #2 he knew that I wanted to go on one. That kind of threw me off guard, but it sounded like a great plan. I put in my papers in July and got a call to Campinas, Brazil (the same mission as Megan Jensen, what are the odds! I believe we were supposed to be MTC companions, right? Sorry Megan!). After a couple of months of mission preparation I soon realized it was NOT the right decision for me. I then waited for him to sweep me off my feet and say "don't leave me...let's get married now"...yah right, not gonna happen. So around October I basically had to talk James into getting married earlier instead of later and it wasn't an easy task! He then proposed on Thanksgiving Day. FINALLY! We got married 9 months to the day he arrived home, yay! I'll post those pictures next. :)

The High School Years

2009-02-12T07:01:00.001-07:00

Last time I left off saying that things were about to change just around the corner. We had a really fun summer before high school started. And before we knew it, we were in 10th grade! Wow. We all felt so mature and grown up. Ha ha. :) James and I still kept our distance for a good part of the school year. I still didn't know that James had a crush on me and vice versa.

Unfortunately life as I knew it basically fell apart in April of 1999 - it was official...my parents were getting a divorce. My heart was broken and I didn't know where to go from there. This meant a lot of things like my dad wouldn't live in my same house and we could only see during scheduled "visits" every other weekend. It meant we would have to sell our new house and what if we had to move far away? It meant a lot of scary things.

I truly believe that when one door closes, eventually another door opens in one way or another. Maybe not immediately, but eventually, everything is accounted for and made up for. In May, my other door opened. James had heard about my parents and wanted to do something for me. He decided he would ask me to Senior Ball now that we were both 16 years old. I was more than thrilled!!! My first date and it was with JAMES! Wow...I was so excited.

The day for Senior Ball finally came. We spent the day activity at North Canyon Park playing Ultimate Frisbee and other activities. We ate Subway sandwiches and were very nervous around each other, it's kind of funny to think about it now. I had no idea how to act being that it was my first date and James definitely felt the same way. Then it was time for the girls to go get ready, so James dropped me off. It seemed like time went sooooo sloooowwww... I couldn't wait for the dance!

James came and picked me up and he was very handsome in his tux. :) We hopped into Grant Butler's humongous van. We were the first ones to be picked up, so we sat in the back right next to each other. We were so nervous! We were both shaking I think. The song "I'll Be" by Edwin McCain came on the radio while we were picking everyone up. To this day, it is still one of my favorite songs because of that memory!

We got to the dance and from that time, the rest is pretty much history. It was the most magical night ever. We went to the Salt Lake Capitol, so of course it was absolutely beautiful. We literally fell in love on that date, our first date, as we danced close together. During the fast songs I would link my arm in his and we would walk around the Capitol. Then we'd go back down to the floor during the slow songs. I still remember a lot of what we talked about, it's that vivid in my mind. There was a strangely powerful feeling instilled in both of us that night and we knew there was something special between us....something that would last a very, very long time. It was so incredible!

Our first date. Look how young we are!

We were so very sad when the dance was officially over. That meant it was time to go home and it was time to get back to life. How boring! Grant dropped us off at my house and James walked me to the door. We hugged and said good night (yes, that's right, just hugged...we were very old-fashioned). After I went inside, I ran to the window and watched James practically skip down the street.

We were off to a great start. That next Monday at school, James gave me a note. It said "I had a wonderful first date with you at Senior Ball, by the way, you looked beautiful. Speaking of dates, I have tickets to the Salt Lake Buzz game (now known as Bees) on Wednesday, would you like to go?" My heart pretty much stopped, I'm surprised I didn't die right then.

It was a fun 2nd date! But yet again we were still so very nervous. James picked me up in his cool 1989 Honda Accord coupe and we went to get ice cream before going to Juliann's house to meet his brothers and their dates. It was a lot of fun! I wish I had a picture from that night.

Summer came and we still kept in touch. In fact, James came over to my house (we were then living back at my grandma's house) and he installed "Juno" for me, a free e-mail service. We e-mailed regularly every day and they were usually pretty long e-mails. We got to know each other quite well. In fact, James actually compiled those thousands of e-mails into a Word document and printed them for me before he left on his mission and we still have them - 5 full binders full!

My grandparents used to take us to Stadium of Fire every year and this year we had an extra ticket. Lucky me! This was our 3rd date. It was Hewie Lewis and the News, what a fun night! After it was over, we ate our traditional watermelon as we waited for the cars to dwindle down and then left. If any of you have been there, you know it takes forever to get out of Provo. So needless to say it was pretty late. We were sitting in the back of my mom's mini van and I was trying to get comfortable. James leaned over to me and whispered "You can lean on my shoulder if you want." Oh baby! So I did and stayed that way the entire time. I acted like I was asleep, but really I was daydreaming about James the entire time.

Well that's as hot as it gets for now.... we were extremely old fashioned. We still hadn't held hands or kissed and it would still be awhile. For our 4th date, James asked me to the Garth Brooks concert. I was excited. All I could think about was the song "To Make You Feel My Love" and I hoped the whole time that James was thinking about me when he heard that song! Unfortunately we were too high up, so we couldn't hear very well. But I didn't care! I was with James and that's all that mattered.

We started our Junior Year at Woods Cross. I have very fond memories of my high school years. I had great friends, I had James, I was involved in sports, music and other groups. It was a great 3 years. James was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. He was a stable foundation in my life despite was going on at home. My junior year I ended up moving to Centerville with a step dad I barely knew and went to a different ward after so many years of being in such a great ward. All of these things should have made me sad, depressed and rebellious, but none of it mattered. As long as I could see James every day, I was happy as could be! He really, truly saved me. He also followed me to Centerville! Not too long after we moved to Centerville, James' parents moved 5 minutes away from my house.

Like I said before, we hadn't held hands or kissed. We also went on many dates with other people, mostly in groups. We tried very hard to play it safe. We both knew that we would eventually get married and that wasn't going to be for another 4-5 years, so we wanted to build our friendship first. We talked for hours on end and stared into each others eyes. It was such a great time in our dating life. We went to one dance together each year and they were all very magical.

I asked James to the Christmas Dance for our Junior Year. He answered by having his Dad -who worked for the Flower Patch- walk into our very large Concert Choir class and deliver me this huge bouquet of roses with pieces of paper saying "yes" everywhere. You should have seen how red my face was!

Boating in July of 1999. We did lots of fun activities together!

But ya gotta hold hands eventually, right? Let's fast forward to Senior Year (over 2.5 years after our first date mind you). What would be more perfect than holding hands for the first time on Valentines Day? James has always been so romantic. I remember seeing a sign in the girls locker room for Ballet West's "Beauty and the Beast" on Valentines Day and silently hoped that James would know about it. I didn't say a word about it, but come Valentine's Day, James gave me a dozen red roses, balloons, and candy and then he said we were going on a date, but wouldn't tell me where. When we pulled up to the Capitol Theater, it took my breath away. How did he know? He was good!

So let's get onto the hand holding part, shall we? So we're enjoying the ballet and eventually James leans over and says "This part's kind of scary, do you want me to hold your hand?" It's so silly to think of it now, but so cute at the same time! We locked hands....talk about powerful! We had officially entered into the world of hand-holding. I honestly do not remember ANY of the play!

This meant things were getting a little more serious. We were girlfriend and boyfriend and everyone else knew it. Life was great. And I was spoiled rotten!! I was always so overwhelmed and embarrassed at how much James did/bought for me, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. :)

I turned 18 years old that year. My birthday fell on a Sunday that year and me and my sister were at my dad's that weekend. I came home Sunday morning to find that James had snuck into my room early the morning (with my mom's permission) and had decorated my entire room before I came home. He game me more roses and balloons and candy. What a guy!! I seriously didn't know what to do with myself I was so spoiled rotten. He later told me that he was making sure I wouldn't forget him on his mission so that we could get married when he got home. Little did he know I was planning on it anyway so he could have saved a ton of money! ;) But hey, who's complaining.

Me on my 18th birthday.

Peter Pan and Wendy for a group date on Halloween (we went to Olive Garden dressed like this!)

On our choir/band trip to the Riverwalk in Texas. So much fun!

So if you've been keeping track, you know it had been 3 years and we still hadn't kissed. Still hadn't kissed! Wow. We went to Senior Ball our senior year and had a wonderful time once again. My fondest memory is when the song "Angel" by Shaggy came on and James twirled me around as we danced and he sang it to me. It was so funny and I loved it! It's one of my favorite songs because of that. Needless to say we weren't so nervous this time around. The dance came to an end and it was time for him to take me home, walk me to my door...and kiss me!!! That's right, we finally had our first kiss.

Graduation came so quickly. I couldn't believe the time had come that we were graduating! I was both excited and nervous. Excited for the opportunities that awaited us, but nervous for everything else. Most of my fears stemmed from knowing that we would be separated for two years while James went on his mission.

Graduation Night, June 2000. I love this picture of us.

We had a fun summer together that year, but we were being forced to grow up, no fun! I got my wisdom teeth out and got a job -that I would have for 4 more years- and James worked and started getting ready for his mission. I then started college at the University of Utah. My first day of school was very traumatic! I was all by myself without my friends and without James. I had never felt so lonely in my life! And I had 3 more years of this? The carefree high school years were over. It was very rough, but everyone has to go through this eventually, right?

To be continued....

James.

2009-02-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

JAMES.

He is my favorite person in the whole world.

He was born February 12th.

This is my favorite picture of him - taken April of 2004.

Here's a little bit about James...

He is the best son any parent could ask for.

He loves his nieces and nephews more than anyone knows.

He is the youngest of 9 kids and loves being part of a large family, family is everything to him. Here he's with his 4 brothers, 2 of which share the same birthday with James, happy birthday Jon and Dave!

Nice cars are one of his greatest passions. His uncle Vince let him borrow this BMW for our Senior Ball Dance, Senior Year.

He served a full and honorable mission from May 9th, 2001 to May 14th, 2003 in the Mexico City, Mexico East mission.

He looks great in a tuxedo. :)

He makes an ordinary fun event into something spectacular!

He loves to play games and is very smart and strategic.

He is a true romantic and isn't afraid to make a full-course, meat loaf dinner before I get home from work on Valentines Day.

He makes Christmas magical and loves to give gifts to everyone he can.

Every time I turn around he's doing something like this to make me laugh!

He works full-time and goes to school 3 evenings a week. He is a very responsible, hard-working and a faithful patriarch of our little family.

James is also a great teacher (you should see him with those Sunbeam kids), he knows how to build computers, he is very patient and kind and can communicate very well, he cries when his heart has been touched, he gives good advice when a big decision is at hand, he notices when I clean the house and says something even if he just said it the day before, he is very easy going and happy.

I love him and I'm glad he's mine!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETIE! :)

2009-02-09T07:39:00.002-07:00

I'm taking a short break in my "our story" blogging (which will continue today or tomorrow so stay tuned) to write about our experience on Saturday. Let me first start off by saying how happy I have been for Shaylyn...she had a friend that was with her through thick and thin. They did EVERYTHING together. And I would bet that if you look at her phone, she would have thousands of texts back and forth with this friend. Shay was always telling me about her and countless times I thought how grateful I was for such a sweet person to be in her life right now. Through the weekend Shay was telling me how she was sleeping over at Kristy's and then her dad made them french toast on Saturday morning. They then went with some friends to the Gateway...Shay was having so much fun!

For some reason that we may not know in this life, what happened next has now changed everything. They had one too many people for Kristy's car so Shay took her car. On their way home, the two cars were quite a ways from each other but as they got near their destination in Centerville, Shay said several police cars and a few ambulances whizzed by and she had a sick feeling that someone she knew was hurt. They went to their destination and couldn't figure out why Kristy and the others weren't there yet since they were ahead.

It turns out that Kristy and the friends were driving southbound and another woman was driving northbound. They're not sure why, but the woman drifted into Kristy's lane and they collided head on. Kristy was pinned in the car and had to be extricated and then she was life-flighted to the new hospital. Click here for the news coverage.

Shay got a call from Kristy's fiance, someone had called him to tell him Kristy was in an accident. He was working in Idaho and was on his way right then. Shay went to Kristy's home just as the police were getting there to tell the family. This all happened about 7pm.

Shay text me throughout the whole thing letting me know what was going on and I was just waiting to hear that Kristy would be OK. But things weren't sounding good. Around 10pm she wrote "She has brain damage. She won't be the same." Then at 11:00pm she wrote "She died. My best friend is gone." Chills went up my spine. I couldn't believe I just read that. For some reason I thought all along that she would pull out of it and would eventually be OK. I had never experienced someone so close to me dying so I couldn't image what Shay was feeling right then.

Me, James, my mom and Ty all went to the hospital to be with Shay. I can't even express the sadness and heartbreak we saw there as all of her friends and family members were crying in the hallway. Shaylyn was still in the room. She had watched as Kristy peacefully died. I can't believe she had to watch her friend die...what a sad, sad thing to go through.

We were there until about 12:30am and then we went to Shay's house. She was OK, then she'd talk about the experience or something silly she remembered about Kristy and then she'd cry and the cycle would start over again. The hardest thing for me to hear was when Shay said "I don't know what to do now...I normally would be texting Kristy right now during something like this." Shay came and slept at our house. It was relieving to see that she was finally able to sleep and have some peace at about 3:30am.

I am currently reading a book The Selected Writings of M. Catherine Thomas and I know it's by no coincidence that just in the last week I have received a profound understanding from reading this book of why we go through trials and why we are here on this earth. I'm so grateful for my knowledge of the Savior and of God who are aware of us and who help us get through these tragedies during our time here on earth. I'm glad I have this understanding because without it, I just don't know what I would do watching my little sister go through something so heartbreaking, because I know that things like this have a purpose. I hope in some way I can help her have this same understanding as well. And for some reason my little sister was meant to go through this and so many other trials. I hope to someday understand why she has to go through what she goes through. I am grateful that I can get on my knees and ask my Heavenly Father to bring me comfort and to be with Shaylyn because I feel so helpless right now. What a priceless blessing.

I also have a deepening appreciation for the value of life. I can't believe that earlier in the day on Saturday things were normal and then later in the day, someone close to Shaylyn lost their life. Never take any moment for granted and tell those you love that you love them as much as you can. Kristy was also a very good person who was a true friend to many people. This experience has made me want to be a better person.

And now for my soap box... we're not sure yet why the lady drifted into the other lane, but they are trying to find out if she was texting on her cell phone. Whether that's the case or not, James and I have both decided that in our family, we will NEVER text while driving and will only call someone using a hands free method so we never have to look down. Please consider doing the same. I think that in the future we will see more and more tragedies if people continue to text while driving.

Thank you so much for all of your support and prayers. I have such wonderful friends and family members.

How we met.

2009-02-04T13:29:00.006-07:00

I realized the other day I've never written our story from start to finish. Bits and pieces are in my journal, but I wanted to lay it all out and include some pictures. So here we go. :)

James was born in February...

...and I came along exactly 50 days later in April.

We were both born in the same hospital in Salt Lake City...it must have been a sign. My family lived in a couple of different places (including here at the UofU) and we ended up moving to a duplex on the same street as James' family around the time I was 2 years old. This meant that James and I were in the same nursery class at church. I can't believe we actually played together! I wish I could remember him back then, that would be neat. I must have thought he was pretty hot while playing with those toys in nursery because James' mom Janet found me wandering outside their house (on a busy street no less) and rescued me. Did I mention we lived about 3 blocks away from him? I was willing to do what it took, you know?

When I was 5 we moved to Woods Cross where we lived for the next 6 years. Fortunately the stars were aligned and my grandparents were in the same neighborhood/ward as James' parents - something that would keep us linked our whole lives despite the fact that I moved to Woods Cross.

My grandpa owned a greenhouse business. I started working there when I was about 9 or so I could pay for my sweet rollerblades. James' family had a large backyard, so my grandpa asked if he could build a 2nd greenhouse there. I went with my grandpa to their house one afternoon to pick up some flowers and there he was...James. It's the first time we really noticed each other and it's our first real memory of each other. I thought he was pretty cute, but I was so embarrassed! How un-lady like it was of me to be "digging in the dirt" so to speak and I'll I could think about was my ankle socks that made my legs look funny. Hopefully he didn't notice. I do remember trying to impress him with how many flats of flowers I could carry and turns out he was doing the same.

When we were both eleven years old, my parents decided to build a house in the new Eaglewood subdivision. We moved to my grandparents' basement while it was being built. I loved living there! This also meant I went to church with the kids my age in my grandparents' ward and eventually to their same school. What a huge blessing this has been my entire life. I started friendships that I will have forever...those friends have forever affected my life for good (and the same goes for James, too). I was always in the same Sunday School class as James, but let's be honest. I thought he was a rude, obnoxious kid and he thought I was a stuck up brown-noser. Things weren't looking so good for our rosy future so far...

We had great teenage years. We all played night games, we rollerbladed around those neighborhood streets like crazy and we each cycled through our boy crushes with the boys in the ward. I still didn't like James though. I distinctly remember him pointing to a zit on my face and saying "You have a zit!!" I was horrified. Maybe he was teasing because he liked me? Who knows. That pretty much blew our chances for the next 3 years or so though!

Here we are on the last day of 6th grade. I'm kneeling down in front on the right and James is behind me to the right.

This is James, me and Kristin playing games on the last day of 7th grade at Tara's house.

James playing volleyball with us, he was the only guy there with 3-4 other girls. Smart guy!

James and I shared a few classes in Jr. High, one of them being Dr. Lombardi's Physics class. Kristin and I sat on the front row and pretty much got straight A's while James was in the back with my cousin Jordan playing with a yo-yo constantly getting in trouble. There again...things weren't looking good for us. I mean, how can a man support a family playing yo-yo? C'mon.

Then came 9th grade. Things were starting to "heat" up. James and I ended up in Brother Caldwell's seminary class together. What a great teacher. This is when my testimony really started to blossom and James always tells me he was so intrigued by the spirit about me. :)

Me, Brother Caldwell and Staci.

We were also in the same band class and Jazz band group together. James played the trumpet and I played the clarinet and tenor saxophone.

Kathryn in front of Mr. Campbell.

James is the boy to the left in the back sitting down. He's kind of hidden behind the boy in front of him. I like to think that he was looking at me in wonderment as I took the picture. :)

Then came the summer after 9th grade. It was kind of a big deal in many, many ways. We were soon going to be high schoolers (wow!), my family finished building our house, we went to Pioneer Trek and we also played night games galore! I remember one time we were playing "truth or dare" with the guys and someone dared James to kiss me!!! We were both scared out of our minds because little did we know we both had secrete crushes on each other. Luckily James thought quick and just gave me a peck on the top of my head. Aaaahhhh...our first kiss.

Pioneer Trek with the gang. James is in the back row 2nd from the left and I'm on the front row on the far right.

We were definitely starting to be interested in each other. But there was a lot of life going on around us. What we didn't know was things would change drastically just around the corner in 10th grade.

To be continued....

The month of L-O-V-E

2009-02-03T15:45:00.007-07:00

February is definitely our favorite month here in the Peacock household. Why? Three huge things happen this month:

1. James' Birthday.

2. Our wedding Anniversary.

3. Valentines Day.

I decided I wanted to do something special on my blog for such a special month. I will be posting about James, our love story and our wedding throughout the next couple of weeks. And of course there will be lots of pictures. Get ready for some sappy posts comin' up! ;)

..."A new car!!!"

2009-01-30T15:31:00.003-07:00

I love this car.
I love this car.
I love this car. Bye old car!

Thank you recession, there's no way we'd get this nice of a car a year ago for the price!

Let me just list the things we have now that we didn't have before:

1. A radio that works.
2. Air conditioning.
3. Cruise control (James' favorite).
4. Windows that don't leak when it rains.
5. A trunk that doesn't leak when it rains.
6. A car without any dents, rust or paint decay.

...and we now feel like we sit up high enough that semi's won't smash us because they couldn't see us before. =0)

We are moving up in the world!

By the way, it's a 1996 Honda Accord. LOVE IT!

Fender bender.

2009-01-25T00:23:00.005-07:00

It wasn't that bad of a crash, but here are the pictures so you can see our little car. I tell you, it's amazing how blessed we feel and how much we have learned from this little event last Thursday evening! (Jan 22nd) Let me explain. So I was taking James to class on Thursday night. We were on Foothill Blvd right by our house stopped behind a long line of cars at a stop light. There was a bus next to us in the right hand lane stopped at a bus stop. We were just chatting and I hear a loud crash, look over to James to say "did someone hit that bus" but before I could say anything, our heads whipped forward (ouchy!!) and we soon realized we had just been hit. We get out of the car and realize the car that hit us was actually hit by another car and that car was in bad shape. Unfortunately the pictures from the scene were erased from my camera, or I'd show you how bad his car was so you could see that he didn't even put on the brakes before he hit the car behind us! He was going about 40-45 mph and had changed lanes so he wouldn't have to stop behind the bus...came into our lane and WAMO! Didn't even see it coming.

If we're going to be in an accident, I couldn't have asked for better circumstances. First of all, the car behind us was a 2007 car, so it took the impact like a champ and luckily it wasn't our car that had to take the brunt of it. Second of all, the car behind us was about 20 feet away, so by the time he hit us, the impact wasn't as bad. Good thing too because our poor little '95 Honda was actually injured more than his car just because ours is...well how can I say this...OLD.

I have to say, I really do feel bad for the guy who caused the accident. While we were waiting for the paperwork to be done, the tow trucks to come, etc., I went and talked with the guy. Turns out he's a very sweet 85 year old man who had just bought his car 4 days before the accident! He was so very sorry and apologetic, it was so sad. I told him to not worry about it at all, we're all fine and it was just an accident, important thing was that he wasn't hurt (he had been injured a little bit from the air bag...it was really was sad). What a sweetheart...it just broke my heart and it still does when I think about it.

So what happens now? We go home and rest our very sore necks and get warm after standing in the freezing rain for an hour. The next day my neck is extremely sore since I was turned when we got hit, but I tease James it's because my brain is bigger than his. I give the guy's insurance a call and turns out he might not be insured? Really? Hmm...that kind of throws a wrench in everything, right? We just wait it out a bit, trying to figure out what we'll do especially since it's our only car and our registration/inspection/emissions is due this month. We've resorted to the fact that we may have to take him to court if he's not covered. Something I wouldn't want to do, but we can't fork out money for an accident we didn't cause. And of course we don't have collision on our insurance due to the fact we only paid $1,000 for it in the first place.

Much to my surprise I get a call that same day. It's the son of the 85 year old man. He says his dad was confused about the insurance and had canceled his insurance the day before the accident. So there's no coverage whatsoever. BUT they're going to pay for everything. Wow...my heart was so very touched. Honest people who take responsibility quickly despite the fact there are 3 cars involved, one of them being very bad (his own). And a brand new 2009 Subaru to say the least. Wow. I was very impressed.

We go the next day (Saturday) to the auto body shop. Looks like there's frame damage. Our back doors are slammed shut and our trunk won't close. It looks like it would cost more to fix it then it's worth. We tell the auto body shop we don't expect them to pay more than it's worth to get it fixed since the insurance wouldn't do that anyway. He says he'll call the 85 year old's son.

First thing Monday morning we get a call from the son again. Wow...still impressed. He says, what are the specs on your car, we're going to write you a check for market value. I tell him the specs and 30 seconds later he says looks like it's worth $2,000. I say yes, that's what we found online, too. He'll have the check ready for us tomorrow.

So...back to the "good circumstances". Luckily we were dealing with very nice and honest, responsible people. Luckily we don't have to drag anyone through court. And the best part? We now can buy a car that's even better...heck, we might get one with air conditioning and power windows!! We'll sell our car for parts and probably have about $2,500 or so for a car. No harm, no foul, no cash out of our meager pockets AND a better car out of the whole deal. Wow!

All I can say is I will always try be like these guys and be honest in all my mistakes, but also take care of them quickly. We are so grateful for the outcome!

This picture above is the most pathetic, poor thing!!

Notice how the back end is slanted down now. It juts out sharply right above the tire.

James' jimmy-rigging so the bumper wouldn't run the tire.

My brother Tyer's jimmy-rigging by use of a saws-all so the exhaust would stop coming up into our car so we wouldn't die of carbon monoxide poinsoing...=0)

Bleh. Blah. Ugh. EWW!!!

2009-01-22T14:26:00.003-07:00

I am officially now looking for a job, along with all of the other 60,500 unemployed Utahns. What joy...not really though...I absolutely LOATHE job hunting. And me and jobs don't always get along anyway, but I'm hoping I'm a little more mature this time around.

I'm particularly frustrated right now because I thought I would be able to start a CNA job right about now (certified nursing assistant) but you see, you can't really apply at the U of U Hospital until after you've passed your CNA tests. At the time I talked with the nurse recruiter there were lots of CNA positions open. Well, that's not the case anymore...they're gone, all gone. I also assumed I could take my CNA test right after finals. Nope, wrong again. First time I was able to get in was yesterday and today and I had to go to Orem to even get in this early. Are you kidding me? Being a CNA is literally the worst job in the world and you literally get paid the worst amount (who else do you think cleans up the disgusting messes at the hospital??). How can I possibly be in this position...why is nothing working out right? Ugghh.... The worst part is I kinda need a CNA job soon so I can have at least a year's worth on my nusring school application, but obviously that's not gonna happen now.

So I'm trying as hard as I can to get some kind of full-time job through the U of U (we have not had insurance for the last 3 months and we kind of need it, ya know?). But at this point, I'll take any job that gives benefits while I wait for a CNA job to open up. What a joke. I'm super frustrated right now! I think I'll just go hide under my covers and wish it all goes away!!!

Wireless

2009-01-17T09:18:00.004-07:00

Here's my 2nd post today...

Wireless Electricity....This is something James keeps telling me about that he's been researching lately. Pretty cool stuff, have you heard of it? I'm pretty sure this will be the future someday and I'm looking forward to it. I hate wires! They are bulky and annoying and old fashioned. I'm excited for the day when we all have transmitters like the one pictured above in our homes so we don't have to have ANY wires. That will be cool!

COUCH POTATO!

2009-01-17T08:49:00.009-07:00

So I have a confession to make...I am so addicted to TV!!! I usually can't go a day without watching it and I have a hard time shutting it off when bed time rolls around....like a really hard time. It's been getting worse so I'm realizing that me and TV have a problem.

Usually I'm OK that we watch TV because we're busy with school and James with work, so I don't feel guilty when we watch a couple of shows before we crash. But things have slowed down a bit right now, we're not as busy as we used to be (at least not until this semester starts kicking in) so we have extra time on our hands...which lately has meant MORE TV.

I'm kind of starting to get SICK of it!

So we discussed the issue and decided to cut out some of our "filler" shows. WOW, that opened about 2-3 hours of our life every day. We decided that we were going to play more games together and start reading more books. So far so good! It's been a tough transition...but once I start the activity I love it. I love the light-hearted interaction when we play games together and of course I love the extra time for books. Why didn't I do this sooner? I'm sure some of you are already like this and I'm embarrassed it's taken me this long to figure it out. This could be a good thing!

So...I think I'm going to make it on this road to addiction recovery. I will still be watching "my shows"....just not so many right now. ;)

This makes me smile. :)

2009-01-12T20:26:00.003-07:00

Meet my 2 year old half brother Shon. What a cutie!!! This is what we did on Saturday night while "babysitting" him so my dad and Sheri could go out on a date. My favorite part is when he wants to start a pillow fight. I'm videoing and you'll see Shay and Ty as well. Enjoy!

What James likes to do.

2009-01-02T22:51:00.004-07:00

Zach, Rob, Jon and James in the back slightly hidden by Jon

So this is what my husband is doing right now, along with Marci and Juliann's husbands. Zach, their nephew, is along for the ride as well. I seriously do not get how they can have so much fun playing the same game (Halo 3) for all hours of the night, I guess it's a guy thing. But, I'd have to admit, I love how happy James is the day of his "monthly Xbox party". He LOVES getting together with his brothers and nephews to play. He loves it so much he saved all of his extra money all last year to buy a 2nd XBox 360 and a 2nd TV (only costing $400 on Ebay, he was in heaven) so that he could create an XBox gaming "center" in our home every month. He even got committments from everyone before he made the purchases to make sure they would come every month. Well, so far so good. They sure miss having Dave here though!

I also have to admit it's fun to see him do something he enjoys. I'm always doing something I enjoy and we're usually doing what I want to do. So it's nice to see him have his way and do something fun for himself once in awhile.

Now let's just hope they end this one a little earlier tonight. Last month I woke up the next morning to James just getting into bed. Seriously? Who games for 12 hours straight?

What a ride.

2008-12-31T08:39:00.000-07:00

Although Fall Semester 2008 was the hardest semester of all my 11 semesters of college, it was one of my favorites. I learned more about the human body than I ever could imagine. I am totally obsessed with the human body. I love everything about it, it is definitely one of my greatest passions. It is such a miracle to me and I will always be grateful for the understanding I received from my awesome teachers this semester.

On October 30th I was able to go to Body Worlds with my Anatomy class. below you will see my instructor, Mark Nelson. Best teacher on this earth! Oh how I'll miss my daily Anatomy classes! It was an amazing experience to be able to go Body Worlds with him. I made sure I stayed right by his side the whole time so I could cling to EVERY word he uttered during each display.

Mark Nelson, my Human Anatomy instructor.

I'm with my friend Islena right before it was our turn to go in.

Here are some fun facts I wrote down while walking through the museum that either my teacher taught us or I read from the displays:

We have 60,000 miles of vessels running through our body
Laid end to end, the average adult cardiac network would wrap around the world more than twice
Each foot has 26 bones and over 100 ligaments
Blood goes all the way through your body at least once every minute (I learned in depth what this means in Physiology...what a great class)
30 hours after a female's egg is fertilized it begins to divide and a baby is born 260 days later (wow!!!!)
1,800 gallons of blood goes through your body every day. Granted, it's the same blood, but that's A LOT of movement!!
This equates to the blood "traveling" 12,000 miles A DAY
Skin is our largest and heaviest organ. It's weird to think something as ordinary as our skin as an organ!
The Jarvik-7 was the first artificial heart that was successfully implanted. It was created and applied in 1982 at the U of U. Go Utes!
The digestive tract is 30 feet in length.
To believe that the worst will happen is more damaging to your heart than age, weight or a heart condition. Your risk of heart disease increases more from stress and worry than from anything else.
We breathe 20,000 times a day. Talk about taking something for granted!

I absolutely LOVED my experience. I was rendered speechless by the beauty and art of each display. I gained so much understanding about my body and the way it works and looks inside. What a blessing this semester has been!

2008 Year-End Review

2008-12-31T08:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe today is the last day of 2008. I would have to say that, besides our first year of marriage, this year has been my favorite year yet. We've gained immense amounts of stability, we've "shored up the leaks in our purse" (from the book The Richest Man in Babylon) and we completed 3 semesters of school between the two of us. I'm thinking 2009 is going to be even better. I love it when a new year comes...a new start, a freshness...it's going to be good. :)

January

James started his Junior year at the U of U and I kept busy building our pet sitting business. My efforts were paying off as we watched the business grow. It was a source of great satisfaction for us! We were living our business dream! We also bought our '95 Honda Civic with $1,000 cash. It has been a great little car for us! And no monthly payment? Seriously, you've gotta try it sometime.

February

I started this blog, we celebrated James' 26th birthday and our 4-year anniversary. We spent our anniversary chasing a dog that got loose! We also were trying to cover pet sitting jobs due to a severe shortage of sitters. But our sales had "exploded" so it was OK. It was our biggest month yet! For our anniversary James took me to a Jazz game and then to the Olive Garden. He then surprised me with a night's stay at the Hilton. It was all so great! Until I had to wake up at 6am to go do pet sitting jobs. Seriously...what a drag...

March

We celebrated the fact that James had kept a good, stable job for a whole year! James had a week off school for Spring Break so we flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico for free thanks to JetBlue. We then flew to California for free and picked up James' RSX type S and we drove it home. What a fun trip that was! Such great memories!

April

I celebrated my 26th birthday. We made the decision to move to our current apartment near the U of U and have literally loved it here more than when we owned our own home! I'm so glad we made that decision. We also loved having a place of our own. We had been living in James' parent's home since April of 2007 and although we truly appreciate the time we had to get on our feet financially, you just need your own place, you know?

May

Summertime was here and James had four whole months off school. What a nice break! I was all signed up for pre-requisites to do nursing and then decided to push forward with our business instead. So I worked on our business and did JetBlue during the day - all from home. Then we'd relax and be lazy (or take care of a pet sitting job) when James got home from work. I decided that I would run a marathon in October and this is when I started training. I loved those Saturday morning runs with my training group!

June

I continued to work for JetBlue and the anxiety and stress continued to build. I started to realize that the source was from our business. This is when we did some researching and found out that we had the largest territory of anyone in the nation! Most people had a territory with a 20 minute radius...ours was like an hour radius! No wonder why we had to hire a sitter every time we booked a service. So that wasn't normal? Unfortunately due to these logistics, the bigger our business got, the more it started to implode. It was awful! We also had sitters "steal" customers and forget jobs and of course being the owner, that all came on my shoulders...something my perfectionist personality could not shake off easily. It was miserable! This is when I decided I didn't have it in me to push forward with something so unpredictable and unstable. I need routine and stability. I think if we could have both worked on it full time (or at least me) it would have turned out to be a very successful business for us despite the logistics. But that wasn't possible with our finances the way they were at the time. The timing just wasn't right! If you're going to start a business, make sure you have some capital to back it up and that at least one person can work at it full-time. I was sad we couldn't make it work, but it is what it is. We haven't given up on owning our own business, we'll just make sure we're stable enough to handle it next time!

July

We finally got all of our furniture purchased (go KSL!) and most of our boxes unpacked. Phew, what a job! I still want to post before and after pictures. We started to work on closing our business. We tried to section it off and sell parts of it, but I think with the "failing economy" people were scared to get into something right then. It was really hard to tell our customers that no one would be taking it over and we would need to close our doors.

August

After much contemplation I decided that since we weren't doing the business I would go the nursing route FOR SURE this time, no turning back no matter what. I felt strongly that I needed to ensure stability throughout my entire life and this is one way I could do it. Luckily I was able to get into the classes I needed at the last minute. We finished with our business completely and my peace and sanity returned, hallelujah! I would no longer get crazy calls and texts all throughout the day from people either needing a job we didn't have the staff to cover or from a client or sitter with an issue I wasn't able to resolve. What a relief!!!!!

We spent a week in Mexico and had the adventure of a lifetime. The trip ended up costing A LOT more than expected (who knew that in Mexico you can't drive a rental car 1,000 miles and drop it off like you can in the states...that's a $1,400 mistake you don't make every day). But...I have memories I will never forget and man...those Cabo beaches sure are beautiful! We had invested in timeshare back in 2006 and the resort was AWESOME! Greatest investment we have made. How fun!

September

School was definitely underway, but it wasn't quite busy yet. I was getting to the final stages of my training and gaining a great sense of accomplishment from my long runs. We continued to enjoy our home and our ward. Autumn was here! James had to make the tough sacrifice to sell his RSX type S. What a sad day! But he was no longer getting a monthly bonus at work to pay for it, so it wasn't worth the stress.

October

I accomplished a lifetime goal and ran my first marathon. It's STILL weird for me to write that. Did I really run a marathon? Yes...I did! That is a memory I will never ever forget. What a great experience and what a great family I have! Shortly after my marathon I decided to quit JetBlue. School was getting way too busy and I knew I would need to get a job working in a hospital soon anyway to be able to put on my nursing school application. No more free flights! That's OK, you have to spend money at the other end of the free flight to stay somewhere, so it's actually a good thing. Later in the month we also enjoyed a week-long week break from school. We got "into" Halloween more than we ever had before and I've never had so much fun! There's just something about scheming together and getting in touch with your inner child. How fun!

November

School was extremely busy and we were into our classes full swing. It was becoming very obvious to us that this semester was going to be a rough one! We thoroughly enjoyed our Thanksgiving break. And when it was done, we only had a little more school to go. We were pulling out all the inner strength we could. We worked together getting homework done, which I was grateful for. We lucked out this year for Thanksgiving and got to spend time with each of our 3 families on separate days so we could fully enjoy the time together. We loved it!

December

What a fun month! We got our tree up early (technically it was in November) and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas season. The pre-finals week and finals week were brutal...I think I cried 4 times and I think I saw James crying too...just kidding, but it really was that bad. It was rough but we did it!! And we got pretty decent grades too! I'm so glad I made the decision to go back to school and I'm so proud of James. This is the first time he's done both spring and fall semesters and it won't be the last. The Christmas celebrations with family and the chance to get away from the normality of life have been wonderful, I love this time of year!

This has been so fun to relive the memories of 2008. Here's to a great 2009!

BLOG BINGE!

2008-12-19T06:58:00.003-07:00

As many of you have heard a million times already, I'm done with this semester! It got pretty crazy there at the end...a little too crazy. In fact, it pretty much consumed my life for 2 weeks straight! So here's a quick update on some things that have happened, dating clear back to October. =0)

I'll start with a few "firsts"...

Before the craziness James and I started trying different recipes for dinner at least a couple of times a week. I was so proud of my pizza! I had never made homemade pizza before and it was SO good. I found out it really doesn't take any more money or time to be creative with meals!

We had the missionaries over, which was another first for me! They were so funny. They "practiced" a discussion on us and it brought such a wonderful spirit into our home.

That Sunday when we were leaving for church, we saw that the missionaries had heart-attacked us! It was so fun! So much fun, that we forgot to check for our keys when we stepped outside. Our doors automatically lock, so we got locked out and ended up missing Sacrament meeting...oops.

On to Halloween 2008...

Definitely a first...never been a goth before...

This is me and James for Halloween! We totally got into dressing up for Halloween this year and had so much fun together!

Notice his black nails.

I also never knew I could get my hair to do this.

Now on to more enlightening Holidays...=0)

We know it's the best time of year when we have a never ending-supply of our favorite drinks. And yes, it HAS to be Stephens. For some reason we just never buy soda or juice except during Christmas, so we pretty much live it up.

We went to Lone Star before the annual sacred event of picking "the tree".

I'm laughing because I had just knocked over James' "precious" star for the 5th time right as he was taking the picture.

We had some fun visitors while decorating, which we loved! My dad, Sheri and little brother Shon came to see us after they went to the Christmas lights at the zoo. They're watching Finding Nemo (which me and James finished after they left.) We love watching Shon grow up, he is seriously a genius-of-a kid and SO cute! He has such a cute little smile he whips out all the time.

Our cute little cinder-block apartment. I love our little home! I also love Christmastime...makes everything so pretty.

Here's our door decorations. I made the mitten decoration clear back in Mia Maids or Young Womens and gave it to my Great Grandma Smith. I got it back after she passed away, so it means a lot to me...plus I think it's kind of cute.

Every time I wake up in the morning I turn on the lights and enjoy the peace it brings. We decided that we'd get everything up and decorated before the craziness of finals week came and I'm so glad we did! We've had it all up since Nov 29th and I never get sick of seeing the lit tree!

Back to another first. He we have just finished being in charge of our first ward Christmas party. It was A LOT of work, but it turned out so very wonderful. We had great help, there was a great turn out and there was such a spirit of Christmas and unity! What a memory. I also learned a lot about preparing food for lots of people, etc.

Here we are at our annual Smith Family Christmas party. We do this with all of the extended families on the 2nd Sunday in December every year and it's fun to see what's changed (and what's the same) from year to year. We have it down in Lehi because that is where my great-grandparents are from (the one I gave the above Christmas decoration to).

Me, my grandma Smith and my Elsie Ann. She was seriously so cute in her candy-cane outfit she picked out by herself at the store. Elsie is about the same age as Shon, so I get a fun baby to hold and play with no matter which party I go to.

My mom, my little sister Shay, her boyfriend Justin and James. I love family!

Stay-tuned, there will be more posts coming!

Pure Happiness and PEACE

2008-11-28T08:41:00.005-07:00

I have so many things I haven't blogged about yet, but I wanted to write down a few thoughts I've been feeling lately, especially after yesterday (Thanksgiving at my Grandma's).

Look at this face! Elsie is just a loving, carefree girl! She makes us all smile.

Look Juliann, my own Lola!! Matt and Celeste took this dog in since her owners are going on a mission. Her name is Winnie (6 years old) and was SOO adorable! I held her for seriously an hour like she was my baby. I would love to have one of these!

My absolute favorite part of my Grandma's Thanksgiving...Bacon-wrapped water chestnuts (that were soaked in soy sauce and sugar) dipped in honey mustard. YUM!!! (the picture just doesn't do them justice)

These 3 are crazy. :)

My brother Tyler would kill me if he saw that I put this up! But just wanted you to see his REAL side. He's hilarious! It was so fun for us to all get together and forget about homework, work, stress, etc. (the 4 of us are all in college)

Now to the real reason why I felt like posting today. I know this picture looks so simple...just a regular family playing a game. That's the great part about it! There is so much significance in this picture. For once, there is no family crisis, no relapse, no divorce, no one in the hospital with near death kidney failure or other things. What a blessing this is. I can't tell you the last time I saw my mom this happy and carefree. I have been so deeply affected by mom's 2 divorces over the past 10 years and this is a priceless moment to me. :)

This is the first year in a VERY long time that we have all felt joy and peace. I know bad things might happen in the future and that every family goes through bad things (and I'm not trying to say my family is worse than anyone else's), but I'm not worrying about that now. I'm just grateful for the fun we were able to have and the peace we were able to feel. I'm grateful for the strength my family has. -Don't get me wrong, we haven't been depressed and mopey everytime we get together, but just not happy enough to play games and such like yesterday you know?

I love my family and I am grateful! :)

The week that would never end!

2008-11-21T22:48:00.005-07:00

Oh MY gosh....

I honestly and truly believed that my life would be stuck on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday FOREVER. Thankgoodness time marches on no matter what.

So I had two tests on Thursday and it is the last time this will happen this semester, praise be and HALLELUJAH.

I wanted to record what my schedule was like so that I can look back and realize that if I got through this, I can get through any class in school! Mind you, this doesn't count the studying I have done in the last 3 weeks leading up to these tests (which now that I look back, I really should have studied harder earlier on! So I kind of brought this on myself).

TUESDAY:

8:30am-8:30pm

I was in anatomy class, anatomy lab (which we had a quiz in of course...and they use the word "quiz" so lightly in that class....I would prefer it be called a test!), studying or in a review for the upcoming test. I honestly only took a 10 minute break or so to eat lunch and use the restroom.

WEDNESDAY:

8:30am- Thursday 1:00am

I was in anatomy class, chemistry class (which because of good old Murphy's law, we had a pop quiz...she would do that), or studying. So that adds up to 16.5 hours...minus a 1 hour break.

THURSDAY:

4:00am-8:00am

(yes, that is only 3 hours of sleep) Woke up and immediately started studying for the anatomy test, took the test until 9:30am and stayed till he literally had to kick me out.

Then...

9:30am-6:00pm

I willed my brain to pretend it didn't just take an incredibly hard test and started studying for my physiology test for the rest of the day. I seriously almost started crying a few times from sheer frustration and exhaustion.

I finished the test at 7:45pm and that's about when I died. I WAS DONE!!!!!

I felt like Jean (Phoenix) on X-Men when she uses all of her energy to keep the tsunami from the broken dam from killing everyone and then basically dies from exhaustion afterwards...

That being said, I really do enjoy these two classes. =0) I am totally obsessed with the human body and everything about it so I totally eat these classes up! I could do without the tests on the same day though. As James always says in a fake angry voice "What a joke."

Two fun tags!

2008-11-13T20:31:00.004-07:00

I am: a positive person.
I know: I'm doing the right thing in my life right now...finally.
I want: more savings, a cute house, kids.
I have: great neighbors
I dislike: waiting...I even have a hard time waiting for the prayer to be done before we can start eating, what a dork.
I miss: having my mom and dad together in one place on holidays.
I feel: more stable now than I've ever felt in my life.
I hear: James working on our computer (freak).
I smell: our scentsy candle...yummmmy....
I crave: stability, routine, organization, accomplishments.
I cry: only when no one else is watching. I wish I could cry when it's normal to cry.
I search: for knowledge - whether spiritual or temporal.
I wonder: what our kids will look like and be like and when me and James will die.
I regret: dating while James was on his mission, not doing nursing school the first time around or going to medical school (I would have been done by now, yuck!)
I love: being married to James, living up at the U and going to school.
I worry: about my family.
I remember: dates of past events (even the day of week they happened) and very odd, random numbers in a photographic memory kind of way...but not all of the time.
I dance: whenever I hear a good, upbeat song.
I don't: like when good things end - transitions are bad for me. I HATE it when an episode of a show is over, or when parties are over and I'm still sad that I'm finished with my book!
I argue: rarely, but a lot more than I used to.
I write: in my journal, especially when I'm discouraged.
I win: whenever James tries to match a tie with his dress shirt on Sundays.
I lose: my keys ALL the time, but now they are attached to a zip cord to my purse and haven't lost them since! ;)
I wish: I would have learned how to stick to a budget earlier than age 25.
I listen: to my teachers talk several hours a week.
I can usually be found: in class or doing homework.
I am scared: of James dying expectantly or another family tragedy (divorce, etc).
I need: lots of affection, acceptance, accomplishments.
I forget: everything unless I write it down.

9 TV shows I watch (here are the in-season ones):

Biggest Loser even though Vicky is the devil
King of Queens
America's Next Top Model
Smallville
Heroes
Prison Break even though it's way too depressing
Ghost Whisperer
Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader tryouts
CSI Miami - we love to mimic Horacio

9 Favorite Restaurants:

Olive Garden
Lone Star
Rumbi Grill
Cafe Rio
The Mandarin
Subway's $5 footlongs we split in half when that's all we have for date night, yah baby.
The Roof
again with the Olive Garden and the Lone Star...

9 Things I did Yesterday:

Sat at the library for 4 hours doing homework
Went to 3 classes
Finished my book
Hung out with James
Did the dishes
Took a nap before my brain was permanently fried
Became even more mad at Vicky on Biggest Loser
Vacuumed our floor
Repeatedly wished I could still read my book

9 Things I am looking forward to:

Christmas break
Being 100% out of debt
Becoming a mom
Both of us graduating from school
Christmas
The weekend
My next book
Having all of my pictures scanned, saved to our external hard drive and protected in our waterproof, fireproof, earthquake proof, whateverproof safe!
Getting the ward Christmas party we're in charge of over with.

9 Things on my Wish List:

A super fast computer to organize my pictures (which is why James is working on our computer, yay!!!)
A Garmin GPS for running
New clothes!!
Shoes that don't have holes so my feet don't get wet in the rain and snow
A car with air-conditioning, doors/windows that close all the way and power windows and locks (stop laughing Marci)
More leisure time
More wall decorations for our apartment
At least a queen-sized bed (yes, we sleep on a full...who are we?)
More money to be able to buy all of James' Christmas list items

9 Things I am scared of:

Totally bombing a test
James dying young
Divorce (not me, other people)
Sitting for 8 hours a day at a job
Anyone dying
Not getting into nursing school my first time applying
People not approving of me
Being attacked and not being able to get away
Regretting a decision or indecision

PLEASE do these tags! I love learning more about those who do them!

Fall Pictures 2008

2008-11-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

I'm sure I'm not the only one with a kitchen sink like this.

2008-10-21T19:20:00.003-06:00

Both of us in school

Test week for Brooke

But hey, at least I still cook. And I'm feeling better about my classes....

I only freak out a majority of the time before my tests instead of all the time. :)

A break from life.

2008-10-16T21:09:00.004-06:00

So this is what we do when we have a break from homework, work and school. We make yummy food of course!!! Definitely the best homemade nachos I've had. And I do believe this is the biggest cheese face I've ever made. I'm pretty proud of it...

2008-10-16T14:44:00.002-06:00

This family is looking to adopt a child and I just wanted to put their link on my blog so it can get "out there" more. Hopefully someone will find them because they are seriously the best candiates for adoption.

Some of you know Kim and even if you didn't, I just wanted to get the word out. I'm a firm believer that more "stuff" happens when people start spreading the word. :)

http://jonandkimsadoptionblog.blogspot.com/

THE MARATHON!

2008-10-05T16:11:00.019-06:00

Wow, I can't believe it's actually over! This has been such a great weekend. I've been wanting to run a marathon since I was 18 years old. Here I am, eight years later, with a marathon under my belt. What a crazy experience! I do have to say that it was a lot harder than my training runs, but it made it that much more fulfilling! It was POURING rain for the first 15 miles at least, maybe more. Not what I was expecting! But...I was able to think about my family who was waiting for me at the finish line and that carried me the whole way! I seriously have the BEST family ever.

Here is where James dropped me off at the bus pick up at about 4:45am. Here we go!

This was on the bus ride all the way up the very long mountain that I was about to run down!

The starting line!

Everyone with their garbage bags trying to find refuge from the rain.

Me with my garbage bags. I had brought plenty of warm clothes for cold weather since that has been the norm for this marathon, but no one prepared for rain! (I guess it's never rained at this marathon before)

This was at about mile 7 or so, we're about to go up "Heartbreak hill" by Veyo, which is a dormant volcano (you can see it to the right of me). It's the hardest hill of the race and spans for about 1.5 miles total. The rest of the hills were pretty small though. You can't tell, but it's still raining.

This is at about mile 12. My jacket was soaking wet! I could wring my sleeve out. My shoes were also sopping wet (my socks squished water out with each step). Sometimes it would rain so hard, rain would be dripping constantly from my hat! To be honest, I was struggling a little bit mentally! I didn't have my group with me (they were all either running slower or faster) and I didn't have a watch to tell me when to take my walk breaks so I had to just wing it. I didn't realize it would effect me that much to be without those 2 factors! Next time I will make sure I have a Garmin watch AND a pace group.

This was a 76 year old woman who was speed walking/running and was in better shape then me! Later my family told me she had beat me as well as an 84 year old man. :)

This was at mile 15 or so when it had finally stopped raining! It is also when the route started going downhill quite a bit. My spirits really lifted at this point and I was feeling more excited about the whole thing!

Here's what was going on while I was running... you can see my family near the fence. My side of the family was on this side (my mom, Gus, Gus Jr, Shay, her boyfriend Justin, my dad, Sheri, Brayden and Shon, my Grandpa, Celeste, Brielle, Abbey, and Cade). My Grandma would have been there too, but was back at the hotel with a sick baby (Elsie). James, Juliann, my in-laws Janet and LaVar were on the other side. (which I absolutetly loved that I had family on both sides by the way!) They were so very kind to wait almost 2 hours after I told them to be at the finish line!

My dad and my step-mom Sheri.

The National Gaurd was there helping with everything. This was a VERY well organized race! I was very impressed!

Here I come!! I was SOOOO happy to see my family! I had been so excited to see everyone since I had started this race almost 6 hours earlier! They were my inspiration. :)

Words cannot express how emotional I was to see James and my family.

Here I am slapping hands with my family, apparently they all had cash in their hands they were trying to hand me (for running the race) and I didn't see it!

All I saw was Celeste handing me this $20 bill, but I couldn't grab it fast enough.

I'm finished!!!!!! My official "clip" time was 5:54:10 (since it took me 8 minutes to actually cross the starting line).

I was just glad to finish under 6 hours...5:54:10 doesn't sound nearly as long as 6 hours...:)

My first marathon medal. Definitely something I won't throw away.

My supporters!!!

Me with Juliann, James, Janet and LaVar. Everyone made sacrifices to be here and drove so far! I am the luckiest person in the world! I know there would have been many other people there if they could have been (like my brother Tyler who had to work the night before). :) They were there in spirit!

POST RACE....

Don't worry, it looks worse than it is! Back to our "posh" Motel 6 which didn't even have a bath tub for an ice bath. So I opted to "compress" my legs by wrapping them instead. I took 2 naps and layed around all afternoon. It was great!

Later that night, we met together at one of the hotels and ate dinner. It was SO fun to have everyone together and talk about the day's events.

My mama!

And of course, the greatest supporter and the awesome photographer behind it all, my love James!

We stopped off at my dad and Sheri's resort and hung out. We stayed until about 10:30pm which is about the time I started to completely shut down! I was so sad to leave everyone! I wish we could have just played all night.

My sister Shay and her boyfriend Justin!

Brielle and Elsie.

The kids were all really excited to be at the race. They drew me cute pictures of congratulations and gave them to me that night.

Abbey.

The view of St. George from our hotel on Sunday. Of course it was beautiful the morning after the race. :)

The finish line was right next to the St. George temple just to give you an idea of where it was at.

On our way home... I was sad to leave. I wish I could have had more time with everyone! The whole thing was just a great experience.

Today I'm not too sore. (probably because I really didn't run that fast?!) My quads and my lower back are sore, but no injuries. My only battle wound is a HUGE blister on my right pinkie toe, but hey that's not too bad considering!

After this experience I have decided that I want to run a marathon again, but only if I train harder so that I can run faster! I would REALLY like to qualify for the Boston marathon, but that will take a good few years to work on. Until then, I wouldn't mind making this a yearly tradition!

Thanks everyone for all of your support and your encouraging words!

And the results are:

2008-10-01T11:37:00.003-06:00

2nd post of the day...

So I got my tests back on Monday and Tuesday and I got a B on BOTH tests!!!!! Yeehaw! Of course the perfectionist in me immediately said "why didn't I get an A?? I need to do better" but then I remembered that oh yah, I had almost quit. :) I honestly and truly think that I actually work HARDER since I have the two classes together and the tests on the same day. Does that make sense?

Thanks for all of your encouraging words you guys! I seriously have the best family and friends. Everything that was said was exactly what I needed to hear!

He said what??

2008-10-01T11:30:00.004-06:00

K, so a few weeks ago I posted a link to President Bush's silly speeches, but that was just done in fun and not really to shame the guy. Plus, those mistakes were just from mixing up words and such. I think it's pretty cute and like that he's actually human.

Now this link beats out ALL of President Bush's mistakes COMBINED. I stole this link from Megan's blog because I just couldn't believe it! At least our President knows how many states there are!!!!

With all of that said, I just want to express some thoughts about President Bush. I normally don't talk about politics with anyone but James because I don't take enough time to really know each opponent, etc. to make sure I'm saying correct things. So what I'm saying is mostly based off what I have seen, heard and felt. My belief is that President Bush has done the best he could possibly do with the events that has been thrown into the mix. I truly believe he has done a MUCH better job than his noodle-like opponent would have done had he been elected. And the whole gripe about the economy being his fault...yah, he could have done a few things differently, but honestly, the economy was due for it's normal 7 year "correction" anyway. So any president would have had to deal with something. I highly respect our President.

What a week...

2008-09-27T21:56:00.011-06:00

I'm not going to lie... this has been a really rough week. I went to a really bad place. I don't know if it was THE bad place (the good thing is I didn't see Juliann OR Marci there). What does having 3 hard tests in one week PLUS lack of sleep equal?? A husband I feel very sorry for!! Poor James. He was so very supportive though, even though I was pretty much at the depths of despair! Wow. Not to mention he had a paper and a test of his own to do this week.

What in the world was I thinking to take Anatomy and Physiology at the same time? Add to that Chemistry and you have a bonafide basketcase on your hands. People on the shuttle ask me what classes I'm taking and then give me a horrified look when I tell them. They always ask the same question: why didn't you just take Physiology next semester? Good question! I really have no idea why I did this. Oh well. Oh, and I forgot the best part, both classes have each midterm on the same day! -So I have 3 more times of total chaos just like this week. And did I mention that they only accept 75 people into the nursing program out of 200 applicants once a year? So basically I have to have pretty darn good grades to be competitive at all if I want a chance to get into the nursing program on my first try (how did all of you nurses out there do it? I greatly admire you).

So I really started to doubt myself at this point. I was seriously doubting why I ever thought it was a good idea to go back to school and get a nursing degree. There are much better things I would rather be doing right now (like being a mom maybe?). I mean, I was totally understanding Anatomy (love that class with a passion) so I wasn't too worried about that, but Physiology...???....wow. Even though I have studied and have done several flashcards since the first day of school, I seriously did not even have a clue what the practice tests were talking about. If someone were to show me the tests and ask me what class it was for, I literally would have said, oh that must be Advanced Physiology because I've never seen that stuff.

When James got home that night, I told him there was no way I could get a good grade having both classes and both tests the same day and I would be withdrawing. Being the wise and supportive husband he is, he encouraged me to just stick it out to see what the test was like and then reconsider.

So that's what I did. I studied like no other. I would study for Anatomy for several hours and then trade to Physiology for several hours. I mean, I didn't even watch any TV.... now that's sacrifice right there.

The two tests came and went and I think I was able to pull off Physiology. This all helped me to further solidify my decision for getting my nursing degree. I have very deep-rooted reasons why I am doing this (that is another story for another day) and I am determined to have this accomplished before my precious children come down to this earth. I felt very good the next day knowing that yes, I am doing what I should be doing and since then I have felt so very happy and peaceful. Now just remind me of all this when I freak out next month right before the tests. :)

Sisters in Zion

2008-09-23T07:50:00.005-06:00

I feel like I'm always writing about ME and it gets a little old sometimes! Since we don't have kids and we don't really have a life, I was excited when I got some pics of my sister Shaylyn to share. She comes to our apartment to "get away" every now and again and we absolutely LOVE having her here. (She's a trooper considering she only gets the couch to herself and usually gets woken up early since we basically live in a cement cell and there is no privacy). She came last weekend and we had Stake Conference that Sunday so she tagged along.

I am so glad she is my sister!! She is awesome. She is 18 years old and just started her freshman year at Weber State. You should see her and James...they are were meant to be brother and sister. :) Get those two and my brother Tyler together and there is never a dull moment!

They had told us a member of the first presidency would be there. Much to our enjoyment, President Monson AND Elder Ballard were there. Elder Hinckley (Present Hinckley's son) was there as well. President Monson was really relaxed and funny. I loved it! And it was so crazy to watch/listen to Elder Hinckley...he made a lot of the same movements and gestures as his dad...it made me really miss him! I forget sometimes that we have a new prophet, so it was good to see him in person. :)

24 Miles

2008-09-14T07:53:00.005-06:00

So I ran 24 miles yesterday. That is a really long time to run, let me tell you. James told me that I was saying in my sleep "a long way to run" on Friday night. I must have been dreaming about what lay ahead! :)

I couldn't have asked for a better experience and I learned a lot on this run that will be very valuable for the marathon itself. I started my food "regimen" at the 30 minute mark and then ate/drank steadily throughout the entire run. In total, I ate 2 full protein bars, a handful of pretzels and tons of water and Gatorade. This made a HUGE difference in comparison to my last run. I was able to run a pretty consistent pace of about 12.5-13 minutes/mile (including the walk breaks every 2 minutes) through the entire time. On my last long run 3 weeks ago, I totally tanked at the end and was probably running about 16-18 min/mile pace during the last 6 miles. So yah, I will be much more prepared from now on with food.

I also noticed that as long as I didn't stop very long at the water stations, I was able to keep a consistent pace throughout. Towards the end of the last few long runs I was stopping almost every 2 miles to sit down and stretch/rest for about 2-3 minutes or so. I thought it was helping, but in actuality, it was making me very stiff and that's why it was hard to stay consistent through the end. So this time, I never stopped moving longer than 1 minute and it made a huge difference. I thought it would be harder, but it wasn't, so that was great.

I was really nervous for this long run because I have been battling an ankle injury that flares up every once in awhile and my left hip has been hurting for the last 3 weeks. I've had to really tone done my mid-week running and have just been walking for exercise. I really thought I would have to stop and wouldn't be able to complete the full 24 miles. Luckily and praise be, my ankle didn't hurt once and my hip pain worked itself out. I now have a ton of confidence that the marathon itself will go really well and I will finish strong. Yay!

For future marathons, I will definitely be working on speed so that I don't have to run for so long! (5.5 hours)

I do have to admit, I was very sore last night and today, mostly in both of my hips and in my lower back and my left ribs of all places I guess from breathing so hard?! (which I still don't get why my legs themselves are never really sore). I'm convinced it's due to the fact that I caved in and laid around for about 4 hours yesterday after the run. Usually I have a lot to do, so I'm on my feet the rest of the day and I'm pretty sure that helps you not be as sore.

It actually feels better right now to just keep in a standing position. If I sit for more than 30 minutes (like I'm doing now, oops) then I have a hard time straightening my legs at the hips after I stand up and I walk like an 80 year old for a couple of minutes before I can straighten out and walk normal! Luckily today is stake conference so I only have to be sitting for 2 hours. =0)

I'm laughing at myself because this all sounds so very crazy! But I still love it with a passion. Only 20 more days to go!

Labor Day

2008-09-07T22:46:00.004-06:00

Holidays are great, aren't they? We really didn't do anything extraordinary, but we had a lot of fun. We started by making a yummy breakfast while rocking to Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal", "Thriller" and the like... :)

James made his yummy hash browns.

I made pancakes (which it turns out Jiffy is definitely my favorite pancake mix ever!)

I found out AFTER I had made the pancakes that we didn't have any syrup! I remember my dad used to make homemade syrup, so I tried my hand at it. Turns out he used to use brown sugar. I used white. So we basically ate pancakes with clear syrup!

James was able to enjoy a good few hours of computer. Don't you love the hair? He has some pretty amazing do's in the morning, and being a holiday this was like at 5pm.

We did homework for a few hours and then went to where else? Chili's. It was a great day!

Sunday

2008-09-07T07:02:00.007-06:00

Today was a good Sunday. We love our ward! I have never felt so good about anywhere we have lived during our 4.5 years of marriage until now. Everything just fits perfectly for me at this time of my life, you know? Our bishop, Bishop Nilsen is amazing. He was put in the week before we moved in so we're hoping he's the bishop during our entire stay here. Our neighbors are great, too. We are surrounded by very caring, wonderful people! We lived in this same exact ward the first year of our marriage and it was so dis-unified and cliquish. We weren't really that sad to leave. But we felt very good about moving back here and I'm so glad we did. I'm sure a lot of my outlook on life has changed since we lived here last and that could have a lot to do with our experience here this time around.

Anyway, back to the subject of our bishop. Interestingly enough he is the CEO of Cafe Rio which is pretty cool. And of course, if you're the CEO of Cafe Rio, you're doing pretty well for yourself, right? They have a very nice home and just in the 5 months that we've been here, we have been invited as a ward probably 4 times over to his house for things like "Break the Fast" and Back to School parties. You know how each person has specific talents they bring to this world? Well, his is the ability to inspire large groups of people to become better, come together as a ward family, and get involved.

Today he challenged all of us to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover by our Fast and Testimony meeting on December 7th. That's only 91 days away! Didn't President Hinckley's challenge give us at least 1 year? :) Or maybe it was April to December 31st. I can't remember, but it seemed like a longer time frame!

Well this is quite a challenge for us, but we are determined to do it. We have not been consistent with our reading lately and I'm very excited for the good this will bring into our lives and into our home. Just like everyone else I'm sure, I feel that we could use a higher dosage of peace and comfort and love inside our home. Today I felt so grateful to be a member of Christ's church. I'm so glad I am able to go to church each week to get away from a stressful world for 3 hours!

2008-08-29T14:24:00.004-06:00

You Are Cinderella!
Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Which Disney Princess are you?

I am such a procrastinator. I'm supposed to be doing homework, but guess who has been dinking around Facebook and Blogger for the last 45 minutes?

I'm a sucker for these quizzes, so I copied Juliann's post. Here are my results. I love to see what other people's results are so if you have a free second do it! :)

The start of something good.

2008-08-27T14:10:00.007-06:00

Right before my 8:35am Human Anatomy class.

It's fun to see everyone's back to school posts. James and I had a back-to-school day on Monday as well and thought I'd share. This is a very interesting experience for me for a few reasons. The first being that I'm finally and actually doing it! I'm really going back to school to get my nursing degree after FIVE years of trying to decide if I should or not. I'm excited to get it all under way, but a little nervous at the same time because of all the homework, etc. I'm looking forward to gaining knowledge and strength and having multiple learning experiences!

The other interesting part of going back to school this year has to do with the fact that for some reason I've always wanted to go to school at the same time as James. I think this stems largely from the fact that I was desparately lonely all by myself on campus 8 years ago while James was 2,000 miles away in Mexico! While walking around campus feeling very sad and alone, I remember thinking "I can't wait till he comes home and we can get married, live at the student housing and go to school together!!" =0) Well here we are! Of course it's not as "magical" as your mind makes you believe it will "finally" be, but it's fun still the same.

Waiting for the shuttle later that night for our evening classes (he was totally forcing this smile).

I'm laughing in this picture because James had just rolled his eyes because I was taking yet another picture of something that really wasn't that exciting to him; he was not happy to be giving up his summer!

Unfortunately James does not share the same enthusiasm for school as I do! He loves school, but hates homework and wishes he could just go to school full-time instead of working AND going to school. He is VERY apprehensive about this semester, but I'm sure he'll do fine like he always does. He is working full-time 8:30-4:30pm Monday-Friday at Reliable Screening (managing a background checking company) and going to school on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights. I'm am SO grateful to him for keeping his full-time job while still going to school to keep our finances in check. He is a wonderful and very responsible person!! I have classes scattered in the morning and some at night and will be working part-time with JetBlue from home intermixed through all of that. Thankgoodness for the shuttle! (Speaking of, we are back down to one car since we really didn't need 2 cars with us living on campus and me working from home).

I love living up on campus so close to school and everything else. I'm having a blast!

Six down, one more to go!

2008-08-24T15:09:00.004-06:00

So I completed a long run yesterday, only one more left before the big day! I officially went 22 miles. I feel like I can only say 20 miles were good because I totally "bonked" the last 2 miles. Good thing we have these trial runs before the big day so we can figure out what does and doesn't work. I have a friend in my ward that is only planning on training to mile 15 or so. I am really nervous for her because there is such a difference when you start getting past 20 miles.

We started at 4:30am (I woke up at 3:45!!!!) and it made all the difference to get the bulk of it done before it got hot. The last 6 miles were pretty tough due to the heat. I was in a group of 6 people and we were the only freaks out that early. It was kind of creepy. Why am I so crazy? Who knows, but I love every minute of it! It took me almost 5.5 hours by the time I finished. HOW IN THE WORLD DO THE OLYMPIANS FINISH 26.2 MILES IN UNDER 2.5 HOURS?!?!? They are the crazy ones. They seriously cannot be human.

Here's a list I've made for myself to work on to hopefully make the next long run better:

1. I need to run and workout more during the week in between the long runs. I took too many days off because of our trip and I could definitely feel the loss of muscle when I was at about mile 15 or so. I want to do more strength-training and go running more often over the next 1.5 months so I can get that much stronger. It's amazing how much your body relies on the preparation when the going gets tough. No wonder it's such a process!

2. I need to bring more to eat when I run over 20 miles. I brought the same amount of food for 18 miles as I did for the 22 yesterday (1 packet of GU and 4 shot blocks) I was extremely hungry during the last 3 miles. Too hungry... like if I keep running in this heat with this hunger I'm going to pass out kind of hungry. So I had to walk the last 2 miles. =( It was a little frustrating because I fell apart so bad at the end. The only thing that kept me going was telling myself I could stop at the gas station and get a Snickers bar, a bag of chips and a HUGE Chug Chocolate milk! I've never craved something so specifically and with so much intensity! Thinking about this is seriously the only thing that saved me from just totally hitting the wall. And yes I did get all 3 items after....I've never tasted anything so good in my life!

Juliann hooked me up with an article about what to eat on long runs from Runner's World so I'm definitely going to change a few things and I think I'll feel much better next time.

3. I need to get a great "running playlist" set up on my IPOD. It was purely mental for me after mile 18. Your body is tired and of course wants to stop, so you basically have to just rely on willpower and determination (it's a good thing I love to run, right?). I couldn't believe what a difference good songs would make for me, but I had to sift through my playlist to find the really motivating ones.

I am very happy to not be too sore or stiff today. Not too shabby considering. I was pretty sore and tired yesterday, but it was almost gone by the time I woke up this morning. Praise be to the ice bath! If anyone told me that I would be taking an "ice bath" I would have laughed in their face. Has anyone done those? You literally sit in a tub of cold water and dump an entire bag of crushed ice in. I've done one after every long run and I am a true believer. There is NO way I could recover this fast without one of those! I also was on the go all day yesterday so I think that helped keep the soreness down as well. I will be going to bed early tonight though, that's for sure!

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico!

2008-08-17T13:36:00.007-06:00

We just got back from the craziest, most adventurous, scariest, funnest trip I've ever been on in my life! We left last Saturday, Aug 9th and stayed until Friday, Aug 15th. I learned a lot about Mexico and about international travel in general.

Before the trip I had been a little worried that I would only see the tourist side of Mexico. James has been home from his mission 5 years now and ever since he left I have been dying to see what he saw while he was there. Unexpectedly -but much to my satisfaction- I was able to get my wish! Due to some sold out flights on US Airways (the airline we planned to fly standby on) we were not going make it to Mexico. Well we were determined to go, so we naively looked at a map and saw that it was the same "distance" from Salt Lake City to San Diego as it was from San Diego to Cabo. We knew it took about 16 hours to get to San Diego, so we figured it would take about that same time to Cabo. We decided to fly JetBlue for free to San Diego, rent a car in Tijauna and then drive to Cabo. We were very excited to think that we would make it late that same night! We left Saturday morning and everything went as planned. We got the lovely rental car and headed off on what we thought would be a beautiful coastline drive! Little did we know what we were getting ourselves into! (Below you'll see that we started in Tijauna and drove down the penisula to Cabo.)

We drove for 7 hours that day in the most desolate, desert-looking land I've ever seen and had only gone 1/3 of the way! We drove on a very narrow, 2-lane highway going an average of only 50 miles per hour due to the continuous "curva perligroso" we had to drive through (dangerous curves). We basically drove through canyon roads most of the way.

There were no street lights, rarely any towns and NO hospitals nearby. Oh and did I mention no cell phone service the entire time? It was very dark so we decided to stop at a motel to stay the night. It was a very beautiful mexican hotel! I loved it. And of course it felt wonderful to be able to fall asleep on a comfortable bed.

We got an early start the next morning. Throughout the drive James would show me things about Mexico and tell me about the culture. It was so great! We stopped in Ensanada and got his favorite drink from his mission called "Manzanita" made by Pepsi, an apple-flavored soda. We stopped in one of the few small towns where I had my very first 100% authentic Mexican meal. I'm not sure why I didn't expect this, but it was too spicy for me!

16 hours after starting out Sunday morning we made it to Cabo!! It was almost 11:00pm. We had been driving for 23 hours! We were SO happy to see our beautiful resort. We spent the next 4 days sight-seeing, swimming in the ocean, eating Mexican food and of course just being lazy! It was a wonderful break from life. It was very hot and humid, but of course you don't really care about that when you're in paradise!

Because I have so many great pictures, I decided to make a couple of albums on Facebook.

Click here for part 1

and here for part 2

I absolutely love Mexico and really miss the food, the people and the culture. I love being home though and am grateful I was able to have this wonderful experience!

President Bush

2008-08-04T22:54:00.005-06:00

Thank you everyone for your kind and encouraging words about my training, it means a lot to me! =)

So I have a lot to update on and will be posting in the next couple of weeks, but tonight I wanted to post a link to this funny collection of speech bloopers from President Bush.

You gotta love how he struggles to speak sometimes and then how he laughs at himself because of his follies.

I did it!

2008-08-02T14:51:00.006-06:00

So I just finished 18 miles today and it was the greatest feeling EVER! Mostly because on my last long run I had to turn around at mile 10 due to a hurt foot and thought I would have to drop out of training! (I have since been to the doctor for treatment, bought new shoes, etc and everything is fine) I was very grateful I could continue on with my training today! I had to rest all week and do NO exercising, so it was great to get out there.

We started at 5:30am. It was dark and still fairly cool at that crazy hour. I love starting early because the time goes fast when it's still dark and it's not nearly as hot. I'm able to see the beautiful sunrise above the mountains...it's wonderful! When it comes to things besides my family, I seriously can't think of anything more fun then running on a trail away from traffic, buildings, etc. watching the sun come up.

Well that was only at mile 6, I still had 12 more miles to go! It sounded pretty crazy, but I had come mentally prepared for 18 miles and I was with a good group of people, so it really didn't seem that bad.

My legs and ankles started feeling pretty tight/heavy around mile 11 or 12 and the bottom of my feet were definitely feeling the load! We turned back at mile 12 to finish the last 6 miles...it seems like you can go forever when you know you're on your way back! It was about 10:00am at this point (yes, I had been running for 4 hours!) and it was very hot. I could definitely feel the effects of the heat.

But I felt good considering. Throughout the run I made sure to drink a few gulps of water every 5 minutes or so, I ate 3 "shot blocks" (kind of like candy, but not so sugary) and 1 package of "gu" spread about throughout the run. I also took a few breaks to stretch in addition to the standard 1 minute walk breaks every 2 minutes. All in all it made for an awesome experience! I was SO happy when I finished and could say "I just ran 18 miles for the first time in my life!!" I felt great - except of course for some aches here and there and the normal "heaviness" in my legs. It felt good to stretch, that's for sure.

Tonight I feel really good -just a few sore spots on my knee, my foot and the middle of my back of all places (I think it's where my water bottle belt hit my back throughout the run without me knowing it).

I'm looking forward to next Saturday... I'm running my first half marathon with Juliann in Provo Canyon!

Training Update

2008-07-06T18:15:00.000-06:00

This has been such a fun summer. A lot of things to write about! Once again, be sure to look all the way down, I did a few posts today. =0)

So I ran 13 miles yesterday morning (Saturday the 5th) starting at 6am and ending about 8:30am (warped, I know). I was needing to "dig deep" by mile 10 and couldn't figure out why I was so ambitious yet again to get myself into something so crazy... I must forget easily, because now I just want to do it again! In a weird way I'm glad it was so hard because the finish was incredibly satisfying. My whole drive home I couldn't help be so grateful and intrigued at the same time by the human spirit.

Now before I get a bunch of crazy comments, remember that I only ran for 3 minutes at a time and then walked for 1 minute... anyone can seriously run long distances taking that many breaks! I live for those breaks!

I've posted a marathon count-down and a training calendar on the right. I'm just starting to realize the breadth and commitment of such an undertaking so I want to take full advantage of this experience! It's so much more than just running. Thanks for being a part of my journey, hopefully I don't bore you too much with running talk - I try to keep it toned down ha ha.

We run 15 miles in two weeks...wish me luck!

The Perfect Day

2008-07-05T19:10:00.018-06:00

July 4th is definitely one of my favorite holidays! It's summer, you get to hang out with your family all day, there's great BBQ food and of course the fireworks. The best part is having the chance to be patriotic!

The 4th this year was great! It started with the Centerville Freedom Run 5k. It was so fun!

And even more fun to run with Juliann and to have James, Jon, Anna and Andrew at the end to cheer us on! Thanks Juliann! -this will definitely be a yearly tradition, don't you think?

We hooked up with Shay and Betty and ate breakfast

The jet formation...what is more neat than this?

This is the huge aircraft following the jets so they could refuel in mid-air! They flew over 4 events that day.

We then watched the annual parade. This is my favorite picture.

James and Jon in their element keeping everyone entertained!

Shay and Betty staying cool in the shade

We then went to a pool party at James' sister's house. We took a ton of pictures with our camera and ate yummy food!

I didn't want to go home yet so after all of the activies we went to see Made of Honor (cute show) at the dollar theater and then walked up to Sugarhouse and watched the fireworks.

We didn't get home till midnight...what a fun day!

California Girl

2008-07-01T15:33:00.002-06:00

Last week I spent a couple of days in Long Beach, California with my family while they were there for a week on vacation. It was my first time there and of course I loved it! Running on the beach, perfect weather, beautiful sunsets, palm trees, sleeping on the beach in the sun.... you know, all the stuff that's great about California!

Taking an evening walk on the beach

It looked like this every night

We ate a yummy breakfast at the pier in the far background

I have a weird obsession with taking pictures from planes. This is so cool, looks like snow, but it's a thick blanket of clouds!

We flew on the west side of Salt Lake, which I've never done before. The water was a beautiful blue.

Kennecott Copper Mine, what a view from the sky!

a few of my favorite things

2008-06-30T19:53:00.003-06:00

my nano ipod
my nike plus
my swivel sweeper (seriously, I use it at least twice a day)
listening to collective soul on my nano while running
my running shoes
other people's blogs
my tivo (love the bubble sounds it makes when you push the buttons)
my running group
james' dimples!
flying on airplanes
taking pictures of the sky from an airplane
my little sister's laugh

Surely I'm not the only one

2008-06-30T18:42:00.005-06:00

Please tell me I'm not the only one who has blocks of time every now and again where I just want to stay in my bed forever and never come out?! Where the depths of despair are dragging me down further and further but then in a moment's notice I pull out of it and everything's fine? =0) Maybe this is what my mom was going through when she would hide in her room. Adulthood is wonderful...

The Power of Prayer

2008-06-22T21:50:00.010-06:00

James and I went to a fireside put on by our stake tonight. Michael Dunn was the speaker, he is the guy who survived the grizzly bear attack in 1994 while vacationing at the Grand Tetons. I just wanted to post some of my thoughts and feelings. What I got most from his talk is that we need to depend more on the Holy Ghost and we have to be better about praying for things we need.

He was attacked while on a marathon training run in the back country. He said he had an uneasy feeling the whole time getting ready for his run. He also had an impression to take his sunglasses (even though it was in the mountains with limited sunlight). After rechecking everything he couldn't figure out what the uneasy feeling was telling him, so he went anyway. About 2 miles into his run he came upon a huge pile of chewed up berries and also saw a huge bear paw print. He knew that the first rule of bear country was to make noise. He decided he'd make noise by singing, carefully looked for the bear, couldn't see anything and then continued on. This is when he really hammered in the lesson of "following the rules" and how important it is to follow the rules always because there is a reason why they are in place. 2 miles later he made the fateful decision to stop making noise. He figured he was safe, he had done his duty and that it wouldn't matter now. He made the decision to stop doing the most important rule, something that was lifesaving (implying that this includes spiritual rules, like prayer, etc.). The ranger later measured that 2.9 miles after he made that decision is when he was attacked by the bear!

His account of the attack is very horrific! He did, however, throw in a lot of comic relief though, he's a great speaker if any of you have the chance to listen to him. Anyways... he said towards the end of the attack, he realized he needed to pray. That's when he remembered to "play dead". He also said that right after his prayer, the bear became distracted like she could hear something and then eventually scattered away as if something scared her off, even though Michael couldn't hear anything making a sound.

Later the rangers came to him and said they had found his sunglasses. They showed how there was a claw "poke" in the middle of the lens, but because if was carbon fiber material, it didn't break. They said that if he didn't have those glasses, that claw would have killed him because of the force and strength of the bear. The doctors were also astounded that the claws and teeth narrowly missed his major femoral and carotid arteries (by 2 mm).

He says all of this so much better than I just did, but it was neat to hear his testimony and to be reminded of the power of the Holy Ghost and of the power of prayer. I'm so thankful I have these two powerful tools available to me!

2008-06-17T13:46:00.002-06:00

So I had a major "catch-up" day yesterday for my blog, be sure to read all the new posts (there are 3) from that day. =)

My Mom's Wedding!

2008-06-16T09:35:00.017-06:00

My mom was married on Saturday, June 14th to Gus Estrada in my grandparent's beautiful backyard. It was such a pretty summer day and a wonderful wedding! My mom looked gorgeous and it was just so great to see her so happy. Gus is a wonderful guy! He has 4 kids and we are happy to have them as part of our family.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures!

Here is my Grandpa walking her down the aisle.

My mom and Gus seriously would have eloped, but I made her promise me she would have a real wedding and a real wedding dress! I'm so glad she did, it was so beautiful!

All of us! James, Ty, Mom, Gus (holding Brigham), Gus Jr, Me, Shay, Betty, and Amorette in the front.

Sisters!

(me, Shay and Betty)

Brothers!

(Gus Jr, Ty and James)

Shay with Brigham

Gus Jr. and Betty

Her dress was absolutely gorgeous. It was fun to go dress shopping with her!

Shay, Ty and James at the reception

Annual Party in the Country

2008-06-16T09:31:00.008-06:00

James' sister Lori and her husband Jeff hold a party at their home/ranch in Hooper every year. It's nice to get out there in the "country" so to speak and have some good, old fashion fun!

James and his brother Dave playing their favorite game at this party, trying to win the all-time champ (their dad)!

Me trying not to fall of this horse who thought he was a thoroughbred in the Kentucky Derby! Definitely not the sleek horse rider like I used to be in my younger years....

James on the same horse! He looked like he was handling everything smoothly and then he later told me he was scared out of his mind. Made me feel better at least!

Lori and Jeff's dogs had puppies and they were definitely the hit of the party. How can you not be happy when you're holding puppies?!

Shaylyn's Graduation

2008-06-16T09:28:00.011-06:00

She did it! Shaylyn graduated on May 29, 2008. I cannot believe that she is already 18 and is graduated!

When I was 7 years old, I remember sitting on our stairs in our Woods Cross house praying as hard as I could for a little sister. I prayed so hard and eventually knew that I would be blessed with the "desires of my heart". I wanted a sister so bad, I couldn't stand it! Well a few months later, my parents took me and Ty in to their room and happily told us they were pregnant!

Shaylyn Robison was born March 15, 1990. I was a VERY proud sister. And better yet, she was blessed the same day I was confirmed! (back when they did the baptisms on Saturday and the confirmations on Sunday) I felt so special and happy to be sharing that day with her. I remember the day vividly!

So here's to you Shay, you are the best answer to my first real heartfelt prayer.

I would do anything for you!

Our family would not be the same without you!

I'm so glad you're my sister and I look forward to all the good times that lie ahead!

I'm back!

2008-06-10T06:44:00.011-06:00

I have seriously been lacking on my blogging! One of my biggest pet peeves is when people don't update their blogs and of course I fell into that category. I'm having a lot of fun catching up on everyone's blogs though! Seriously the best thing ever invented. I will be posting more, so come back soon to visit!

I was tagged by Melanie, so here goes:

8 Things I'm Passionate About:

1. RUNNING

2. Being a wife/homemaker

3. The Gospel

4. Cooking

5. Watching a great movie

6. Learning about anything

7. Freezing history with pictures and journaling/blogging

8. Did I say running? :)

8 Books I've Read and Enjoyed:

1. The Richest Man in Babylon (HIGHLY recommended and quick to read!)

2. Good to Great

3. Hmmm...

4. The Book of Mormon

5. Hmmm.....

6. OK, OK, so I'm seriously lacking in this department...

7. I mostly just listen to stuff by Brian Tracy and similar public speakers (boring, I know)

8. One of goals is to start reading more fictional books - any ideas where I should start? (I know you ALL have ideas!! Please give me the top books I should start with and I promise I will go to the library and start reading more!)

8 Words or Phrases I Say Often:

1. Love You

2. "Maybe you should!" (James and I have our own language, probably like everyone else!)

3. Prices include taxes and fees and are subject to change until purchased

4. Interesting...

5. You know?

6. "Surprised you didn't know that" (another random phrase in our language)

7. Yah

8. Just sec

8 Things I Want to Do Before I Die (not in any order):

1. Run a marathon!

2. Be a mom

3. Go on a mission

4. Learn another language

5. Travel the world

6. Be financially independent for retirement

7. Scrapbook all of my millions of pictures (for real, I've never made a scrapbook!!)

8. Qualify for and run in the Boston marathon

8 Things I have Learned (or remembered again) This Past Year:

1. I don't have to do and become everything, simple is OK - and actually very relieving

2. Paying cash for everything makes a very peaceful life

3. Owning a business is harder than it seems!

4. It's OK to walk a lot when running

5. Sticking to a budget is actually very liberating

6. Cooking meals really isn't that time consuming

7. I have a hard time being on time!

8. It's a TON more fun to have extra money than to buy something I really want with money I shouldn't spend (what a concept!?)

8 People I want to Tag:

1. Kristy E.

2. Tiffany R.

3. Juliann P.

4. Brooke F.

5. Emmy D.

6. Kelly L.

7. Chelsie D.

8. Megan J.

8. Jessica W.

And anyone else who wants to, I'd love to read it!

My New 6 Month Project

2008-05-16T06:51:00.006-06:00

I'm sure everyone will think I'm crazy, but a couple of weeks ago I finally did it... I finally signed up for a MARATHON! I was officially accepted into the St. George Marathon, which will take place October 4th!

I've been dancing around doing this for about 8 years now. When I was in high school, I had signed up for the St. George marathon. I got halfway through the training program and had to back out because of ACT testing taking up too many Saturdays (which is when you have to do the long runs) and that combined with all my cross country training, it was too much.

I promised myself that I would sign up again. Well, every year I have thought about it and every year there was something going on (supposedly) so I never signed up. Well this time around I decided that I just needed to take this leap of faith and I did it! I signed up 10 minutes before the registration period closed!

Well, I've definitely learned that it is almost impossible to train for something like a marathon on your own for 6 months! So I've been looking into different running groups. I felt really good about one in particular and decided to check it out on Wednesday when they had their kick off.

So I basically met a famous person that night! OK, so maybe not THAT famous, but if anyone reads the Runner's World magazine, you know exactly who this is! His name is Jeff Galloway. He lives in Atlanta Georgia and has these training groups in several states. I even got my training book autographed and a picture with him! (unfortunately I only had my cell phone for the picture, but I was glad I had that) He was so nice and genuine even though he had tons of people clamoring to talk to him. Wednesday night was honestly one of the biggest highlights of my life. It was so exciting to take my running to the next level.

This is someone who knows what he's talking about! He will be running his 139th marathon this Saturday in Ogden. He is 63 years old! And has run injury-free for 30 years straight! He actually runs a marathon almost every month now. Now this is someone I definitely want to follow. I signed up for his program and have been excited about it ever since! The running group will be fairly large so that will be a lot of fun (not to mention supportive).

I knew a little bit about his training methods, but was blown away on Wednesday night and I CAN'T wait to start training (we start this Saturday). It resonated perfectly with me! His program is very simple and it's centered around running AND walking at designated intervals. He has been doing this since the 1970's and almost all of his runners actually increase their marathon times when they walk more and always have energy to sprint the last 3 miles or so (as opposed to the usual I'm-almost-dead-but-just-a-little-further jog). And they're able to function afterwards like normal. His theory is that by walking at certain intervals from start to finish, you're able to "erase" the fatigue and rest up, so then you can go faster for longer periods of time. His weekly program calls for plenty of rest (only 3 days of running each week) to avoid any injury. I was SO glad to hear this because I was starting to get frustrated about being too tired and sore all of the time while training for a race. It just made sense to me!

I'll keep you posted on how things go (I'm going to use my blog as a training journal so I can refer back to it).

Race for the Cure

2008-05-13T19:35:00.005-06:00

I did the Race for the Cure on Saturday. Here are two regrets I have:

1. That I haven't done this sooner...
2. That I didn't get more people to do it with me.

I will do this race every year from now on! And get as many people to do it with me as I can.(Thanks Juliann for encouraging me to do it) It was such an interesting experience for me and an emotional one at that. It was so powerful to see so many women who had survived breast cancer there running/walking the race with their families. And then to see people with signs on their back showing that they were running for someone who had either passed away from breast cancer or who had survived breast cancer. It just broke my heart to see signs that said "In memory of: MY MOM". But at the same time, it inspired me to just run faster and take full advantage of my life and my health. It made me so grateful that I could contribute $25 to this cause.

I'm so grateful for people who follow their passion and commitment in order to create something like the For the Cure foundation that does so much good in the world. Here is the history of the Race For the Cure:

Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982 that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure and launched the global breast cancer movement. Since launching the breast cancer movement 25 years ago, we've transformed the culture - how the world talks about and treats this devastating disease and helping to turn millions of breast cancer patients into breast cancer survivors. Today, Komen for the Cure is the world's largest and most progressive grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists - the only grassroots organization fighting to cure breast cancer at every stage, from the causes to the cures and the pain and anxiety of every moment in between. Thanks to events like the Komen Race for the Cure®, we have invested nearly $1 billion to fulfill our promise, becoming the largest source of nonprofit funds dedicated to the fight against breast cancer in the world.

A Fun Weekend!

2008-05-05T16:08:00.042-06:00

FRIDAY It first started with an OFFICIAL date. I mean we shined up and everything and got ready specifically for the date (it doesn't feel real unless you get ready for it, you know?) We celebrated the completion of James' spring semester by going to Lone Star for a yummy meal of an appetizer (fries, cheese and bacon with ranch) salmon, veggies, salad, and root beer! This is James' favorite restaurant. We then went to see Iron Man at the Gateway. We rarely go to a real movie (movies that aren't at the $1 theater) so it was a lot of fun! I love going to the Gateway. Has anyone seen Iron Man? It was a good show!

It was fun to be together after a busy few weeks.

They have very tastey salmon and veggies!

SATURDAY The next day was my cousin Rachelle's wedding. I absolutely love excuses to get together as a family and spend all day together. We first got together and decorated the church for the reception. Then we went to the temple. The sealing was so great. The thing that touched me the most was when the sealer said "I believe that some of the angels here today are appointed as gaudians to your marriage." How neat! I felt such comfort when I heard that. I love being in the temple (who doesn't). It was so fun to see them get married and start a fresh life together! I know it's only been 4 years since we got married, but compared to them, that's a long time! So it was fun to be reminded of our own sealing ceremony.

When we got married, Rachelle followed the photographer around and took pictures, too. I was so grateful to have those extra set of pictures! So James and I did the same for her and it was great being able to use our cool camera to take pictures all day. I had a blast! I am seriously obsessed with taking pictures. Between the two of us, we probably took 200-250 pictures in one day! Here are some of my favorites:

It was such a beautiful spring day!

The two best men and the groom (he's in the middle)

This is my brother Tyler, my mom's fiance Gus, my mom, me and James (my little sister Shaylyn had Senior Ball that day)

This is my Grandma Smith and my cousin Brielle

One of the groom's cousins

The groom's best man and another good friend of his

Me and my little cousin Elsie having fun at the reception...we're good buds

SUNDAY was so fun as well! Church was great. We love our new ward! We've been able to make friends and it has been wonderful to be surrounded by so many people our age. We just got a new bishop right before we moved in. We had a potluck at their house on Sunday and turns out he is the CEO of Cafe Rio! Hello! It is seriously my life long dream to own a Cafe Rio. Unfortunately they will never franchise, so I guess I'll have to stick with Costa Vida or something... Oh well... Their house is in this very secluded, national park/forest-like area in Holladay and it was HUGE! But they are very down-to-earth people and very nice. You can definitely tell they are the type that give a lot of their time and money to the church. It was a lot of fun! They are still young and have 5 kids. Their oldest is just about to graduate from high school and their youngest is about 6 years old. So they actually have to leave their kids to fend for themselves in their own ward while they come to our ward! Talk about sacrifice.

I was thinking back to when we were trying to decide where to live. I felt very good about living at the UofU apartments. Nothing else we looked at, including buying our own place, felt right. It's interesting to think about that after you've actually followed through. I now know one of the many reasons was so that we could be surrounded by good people in our same time of life and to have a great bishop that would fit our personalities. -Not that any bishop or ward is bad per se, just feels good to fit in well, you know?

After we got home we watched some re-runs of the April Conference that we had missed the first time around and then we watched the CES fireside. After that we spent the rest of the night (almost 4 hours) just talking about life and whatever came up to talk about! We then finished the great weekend off with some scripture study and prayer and then got 8.5 hours of sleep!!! Wow... these are things that never happen, let me tell you! It was so nice to just rest and talk and then read, pray and go to bed early. It seemed that we totally got off track when we moved to James' parents. We were SO busy all the time. We've since simplified things quite a bit and it was great to get back in the habit of reading and praying. It was also nice to turn off the TV! I've really gotten sick of watching so much TV lately! I'm sure I'll get right back into the habit of TV as soon as So You Think You Can Dance comes back on...

My Personality

2008-04-30T17:24:00.004-06:00

What's Your True Color?

My Result: Green

You're green, the color of growth and vigor. Good-hearted and giving, you have a knack for finding and bringing out the best in people. Green is the most down-to-earth color in the spectrum — reliable and trustworthy. People know they can count on you to be around in times of need, since your concern for people is genuine and sincere. You take pride in being a good friend. For you, success is measured in terms of personal achievement and growth, not by status or position. Rare as emeralds, greens are wonderful, natural people. It truly is your color!

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=colorogt&c=50652

This is crazy! I'm not sure that my personality type is THAT rare, there are plenty of you out there!

A Little Venting....

2008-04-29T07:17:00.007-06:00

OK, so I have to vent a little bit... As many of you well know we do not have kids yet. To many, it seems like we will never have kids I'm sure. Just barely one of my uncles said to me, "you know, you really need to have kids now and not worry about having so much stuff before you start having kids...you want to be young when you have them, you'll be able to get stuff later."

I just looked at him in such disbelief and then figured you know, it's not even worth it. If he thinks we're that low, it's not even worth an explanation so I didn't even say anything back. DO YOU SERIOUSLY believe we would prefer to have stuff right now instead of a baby?! Do you seriously think we are trying to live the good life and get it all in before we have kids? Maybe that was the case 2 or 3 years ago, but now we're 26 years old and have been married for 4 years and NO that is NOT the case. Sometimes you wish people would just have a little heart to not judge! I mean, we understand that naturally people would wonder why we don't have kids. We don't even mind when people ask. Is just when people judge for the wrong reasons, you know?

Oh... and about our new "fancy" car... I wanted to say to him, K so is it really that worldly to want a car that actually doesn't break down and costs $1,000 to repair?? (and yes, we DO have an emergency fund, and no we do NOT use credit cards) We have a 13 year-old-car and a 3 year-old-car (one that has been in 3 accidents mind you, so it's $10,000 less than normal). We seriously have spent JUST AS MUCH on our older car as the NEW ONE!!! Give us a break! And yes, as soon as the time comes that we can have a baby, we will be getting a newer car for me to drive!!!! (don't worry Rob, we still love our little Civic! =) )

There are specific reasons, some of them beyond our control, why we do not have kids yet. I would give anything in this world to have a baby. But we know from the man "upstairs" that we are doing everything right and that's all we can do. Those babies will come when it's right. That's all I care about and that's why I don't really talk about it. But when someone comes out and says something like that, it's really hurtful, you know?

So anyway... there's my story!!

More on the 5K...

2008-04-21T12:24:00.011-06:00

K, sorry for all the running posts, but I just had to record a few things. First of all I had to post this hilarious comparison of me and Juliann at the finish line. Notice Juliann looks great. And then take a look at me... I seriously couldn't even breathe and of course James did as exactly as I told him and took pictures. =0)

So I got to thinking about my race times. I wondered if the annual Deseret News 10K on the 24th of July would archive previous race results. Low and behold it was there!! I found a time from 1999. I was 17 years old (that is so weird). Here was my time:

49:52

10K (6.2 miles)

Translates into....

23:56

5K (3.1 miles)

(according to this Pace Calculator)

That is INSANE!!!

But anyway...

Guess what Juliann, give me a year (or maybe 10) and you'll be eating my dust!!

"Bow down Paula!"

SLC 5K 2008

2008-04-20T20:42:00.005-06:00

On Saturday I ran the SLC 5k with my sister-in-law Juliann (she kicked my behind). It was so awesome!! I haven't raced in about 8 years and I'm so glad Juliann got me back into racing! -You're the best Juliann! I was satisfied with my time (33 mins:11 secs) considering I haven't been exercising regularly. She has planned 7 more races this year, the last being a half-marathon in August and I am so pumped to do them with her!

My goal is to get somewhat close to my abilities of my younger high school years. =0) It will probably take about a year, but at least I will be working towards something (Jessica Weyert's goal blog has really inspired me!). I was looking through some boxes today and found all my race "bibs". I had tons of them! I had forgotten how much I used to run and workout...James was reminding me that it was at least 1-2 hours 6 days a week! What a friek. I was trying to find anything that documented my race times and I found a 1998 July 24th 10k for 56 mins: 33 secs. So I've got my work cut out for me! (this translates into a 27 min: 8 sec 5k, so you can see what time has done for me...oops). Even if I don't get much faster, I at least want to stay healthy so I never get to the point that I can't run. I have always joked that I want to be able to run a marathon when I'm 80 years old, but I'm really being serious! I hope I can always exercise and I plan to make that happen because I always feel so much happier ya know?

I am considering joining a running group. Is anyone else interested or does anyone else know of one? Also, does anyone know of a good running or workout blog? I need some serious motivation/support....

Our new apartment (Yes we are going backwards!)

2008-04-16T23:09:00.012-06:00

K, so we're 26 years old, we've been married 4 years and we're moving into a ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT?!?! What the friek is wrong with me?! We moved over the weekend to the East Village of the University of Utah. I will post pictures when we finally get things settled and decorated (which might be a few months due to a tight budget!).

Who would have thought that exactly 3 years later we would move back into the student apartments at the UofU?! I know I know, it's very backwards and retarted and the funniest part is that we absolutely love it. It's amazing how much you appreciate your own place when you haven't had your own place for a whole year. =) We truly appreciate James' parent's for letting us stay at their house! But now it's time to move on and we are just loving it. We really wanted to buy a house, but didn't feel good about it - our time will come (I'm learning a lot about patience waiting for my first "home", having a baby, etc!!). Living here will allow us to be close to school and James' work for the next few years while we're in hyper-focus trying to get school done, money saved for a house, etc. It is very small (one bedroom!), but oddly enough it is a huge relief because it's less I have to worry about. =0)

So take a good look at this disgusting picture and notice all of the CRAP we have!! Due to my pack rat disease, we have lugged this stuff around for the last 4 years. Well, I have made amazing strides over the past week and we have done some MAJOR de-junking. It was very hard at first, but you know, it is the most liberating feeling to just get rid of stuff you know you're never going to use! And even if we use still use it, we still got rid of it.

So it really doesn't take much to make me happy about something! This is our pizza cutter. I feel like I am seeing old friends every time I open one of our boxes! We have really missed our "stuff" this past year... our own silverware, plates, bowls, our pizza cutter (very good to have), our casserole dishes ETC!! It is so nice to be able to use these again.

Does anyone have one of these Swivel Sweepers?? I bought one last night. This has made me so happy all day and I haven't even used it yet! I have a feeling I will never use our regular vacuum in this apartment now that I have this. The carpets here show EVERYTHING so now I can just grab this out of the closet every night and vacuum everything up real quick. When we lived here before I could never vacuum when I needed to because it was too late and didn't want to be rude to the neighbors. Now I can vacuum at midnight, what could be better than that?!?!?

Tender Mercies

2008-04-04T13:12:00.004-06:00

I've had an interesting tax apointment this morning that probably doesn't seem like a big deal, but for some reason it has really touched me. We have been postponing our taxes, mostly because we're sure we'll owe money and also due to lack of time. I've been so been so afraid to go because our taxes are always so complicated (from all our shananagans!!) and 2007 has been the worst so far! Well I wasn't too thrilled to meet with "Rodney" or whoever H&R Block put me with. For some reason I thought it would be some guy who didn't care, who was just there to have a seasonal job and who didn't know what he was doing. This worried me greatly because what if he accidently made it so we owed even more than we should?? Well...for some reason they didn't look at my apointment and ended up just putting me with a gentlemen that happened to walk by right then. I instantly felt comfortable with him. He was just like a grandpa would be. He didn't even know of my deep fears about the taxes this year and he was still so nice and reassuring! As we went through each of the several items, he made sure everything was correct and on the very complicated ones, he said that he would research them thoroughly to make sure we would have the best outcome possible. At the end when we were making an appointment for next week he told me he is a retired accountant! He also told me a little about his wife and how they volunteer every Tuesday at the Conference Center. When I left, I checked my voicemail and it was H&R Block calling wondering "if I was going to make it to my apointment to meet with Rodney" even though I was already there! I left feeling so peaceful and grateful knowing that Heavenly Father is aware of even little 'ol me with something that may not be a big deal in the scheme of things, but it is a big deal to me. It felt so good to feel His love in such an obvious way today!

Happy Birthday to Me

2008-04-02T08:20:00.007-06:00

So today is my birthday...I have made 26 trips around the sun. =) Here are some trivial facts about the day I was born.

Friday, April 02, 1982

Top Songs for 1982
Jack & Diane by John Cougar
Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
Maneater by Daryl Hall & John Oates
Up Where We Belong by Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes
I Love Rock æn' Roll by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
Abracadabra by Steve Miller Band
Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder
Centerfold by J. Geils Band
Don't You Want Me by Human League
Hard to Say I'm Sorry by Chicago

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1982 Prices
Bread:
$0.53/loaf
Milk:
$1.79/gal
Eggs:
$1.11/doz
Car:
$9,890
Gas:
$1.28/gal

House:

$83,900

Stamp:

$0.20/ea

Avg Income:

$27,391/yr

Min Wage:

$3.35/hr

DOW Avg:

1,047
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US President
Ronald Reagan

US Vice President
George Bush

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On TV in 1982
Magnum P.I.
Hill Street Blues
Remington Steele
St. Elsewhere
Cagney & Lacey
Knight Rider
Taxi
Family Ties
WKRP in Cincinnati
Dallas

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Hot New Toys in 1982
Glo Worm
ColecoVision
Tron
Trivial Pursuit
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Top Books in 1982
A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard
copyright 1997-2008 dMarie Direct Inc

Puerto Rico!

2008-03-25T20:40:00.019-06:00

So we just got back from our vacation to San Juan, Puerto Rico! It was great to get away from everything. This was James' birthday present this year - thanks to JetBlue of course - couldn't have done this if we actually had to pay for airfare. =0) I surprised him because he's needed a break and kept saying "let's just go some place warm". It was the perfect temperature (about 80 degrees). Unfortunately it was windy and cloudy the whole time so we weren't able to see the clear blue water, but it was still warm and very fun! We mostly just hung out on the beach, walked around and found places to eat, watched TV and slept! At the end we flew to California and picked up a car that James had bought and then drove it home. Why you might ask? James searched forever and found a killer deal on an Acura RSX-S that had been in an accident and then fixed up. We tried to make it on one car like we had done when we were first married, but it was a flop. All in all this trip was such a blast and we covered 5 states in 4 days for a total of about 5,000 miles!

K, so I know I have a lot of food pictures, but that was usually the highlight of the trip! At one point, we had gone about 24 hours eating only a few airline snacks, so we went to a buffet when we got to California and ate a ton. I ate that whole plate and 2 more after that.

We eventually got in the water and floated over the huge waves, it was fun. After awhile we noticed no one else was in the water and later found out that they had sent out a warning that no one get in the ocean because of the strong tide! Oops...

The poor side of Puerto Rico

Reunited at last! James finally gets his RSX back after a 2 year separation from his last one.

(And of course I don't mind that he likes this car because as a side benefit I get to drive it, too)

TIMELINE

2008-03-05T18:21:00.006-07:00

What a fun idea! I got this idea from Juliann and like she did, I now tag all of you that are reading this because I want to know more about you!

20 Years Ago. I was 5 years old. So that means I was probably in Kindergarten. I remember feeling way cool because I learned my phone number and my address. I was also bored according to my mom. -My mom gave me a great gift by working a lot so she could put me in a Montessori preschool. Because of this I had already learned how to read books and also speak Spanish. Kindergarten in a public school was a little slow for me because of that I guess! (I don't really remember that, I'm getting this from my mom)

10 Years Ago. I was 16 years old. This was a life-changing year in many ways. I experienced one of the saddest times of my life and one of the happiest because it was the year my parent's got divorced and the year me and James fell in love. I had braces and long hair (two really bad combinations for me!)., I was in volleyball and track and loved it, I got my first beater car which was a 1989 Chevy Nova, and my mom organized my first surprise party for my sixteenth birthday (which I knew about but didn't tell her that. I still had SO much fun!) . What an eventful year.

5 Years Ago. This was yet another huge year for me. I graduated cum laude from the University of Utah about 6 days before James got home from his mission. I got a 4 year degree in 3 years without taking a break and I tell you, it was hard, but it helped keep me from going crazy waiting for James on his mission (or maybe it made me more crazy?). James got home and I had to wait for an ETERNITY for him to "fall" in love with me again. =0) We got engaged on Thanksgiving of this same year!

3 Years Ago. We had been married for one year. We were living at the University of Utah apartments just getting ready to move into our first home in Bountiful! It was fun to move back and be closer to family. My favorite part was having my own laundry room with a washer AND drier (instead of having to carry my wet clothes to the U of U laundromat), having my own porch to sit on during the summer nights, and having my own flower beds to plant flowers. I loved the tree in the back and the huge windows all over the house, too!

1 Year Ago. I don't remember anything specific, but our lives were very unstable and frustrating because we were having a hard time making all of those tough decisions mid-twenty year olds have to make! (What to do in school, where to live, etc)

Yesterday. Was a good day! I had a day off work, went running, walked 2 dogs, went on a rare and unscheduled dinner-out trip to Rumbi Grill with James and then was pleasantly surprised to find out his class had been canceled so we declared it a "lazy" night and did nothing but watched TV! It was great and very needed. I also go lots of sleep!

Today. Went running, mailed stuff at the post office and came to work here at JetBlue until 10:30pm. I am currently on hold trying to fix a problem for a customer. =0)

February - a month to be proud of!

2008-02-28T20:13:00.005-07:00

February was a huge month for us this year! We celebrated a lot of things this month. First of all, it was our 4 year anniversary, James' 26th birthday, our 1 year anniversary for Fetch and it was also our biggest month so far since we opened Fetch! I also "graduated" from the JetBlue training as well. I'll have to admit that -even for us who love to be as busy as possible- this month was a little too packed for me. =0) But we were able to make it through and most of it was a lot of fun.

So James' 26th Birthday was on Feb 12th. Can I just say I'm so glad he was born?? It is seriously the best day of my life. =) Then 2 days later we celebrated our 4 Year Anniversary. It's always a fun week to celebrate, that's for sure! Can any of you believe it was 4 years ago that we got married?

Well thanks for sharing this time with me as I reflect on such a monumental month!