Christmas Lights

I am in love with this new Christmas song by Coldplay. I just love them!

Grateful

This year I worked on Thanksgiving Day and the day after Thanksgiving. I am thankful for my 24 hours of time and a half :) Maybe a little less grateful for the hospital turkey but it was better than nothing. My parents were here for the weekend. On Friday night we went to The Pie for dinner (yum...) and then we went to Temple Square to see the beautiful lights in the freezing cold. It was fun! I am so excited for Christmas time. We put our Christmas decorations up the weekend before Thanksgiving so we could enjoy them longer. I am thankful for good family and friends. I'm thankful for a good job and the opportunities I have each day to help and serve others in my community. I am thankful to be a member of the LDS church. It is such a blessing in my life. I may have missed the turkey dinner this year but I still have a lot to be thankful for!

happy half birthday to me.

Today is my half birthday. I am a half a year closer to losing a bet that I made with my brother in law when I was 23. I told him that I was confident that I would not just be engaged but married by my 25th birthday. Unless Provo suddenly surprises me with its marriage magic than I can honestly say at this point that I will be failing to meet that goal by a long stretch. 6 more months though...who knows what can happen?
This morning I woke up around 5 am. I went to work at 6 expecting another normal day on Pediatrics but somewhat surprised that I wasn't pulled to work in the NICU that has been crazy lately. I walk into work and am greeted by my coworkers. They are all saying "Hey charge nurse." For those of you who don't know there is a charge nurse on each unit every shift that runs the floor while they other floor nurses take care of the patients. Apparently there had been a scheduling issue for our unit that day and the charge nurse was supposed to be taken off the schedule and replaced but that hadn't happened and there was no one else working to take her place. So I ended up being charge nurse. I took about 100 deep breaths and gave myself a little pep talk that it would be okay. No big deal, I had this under control. So the morning SLOWLY rolled by with just two post surgery admits and I was still feeling under control until about 11 when we had 2 more admits walk in the door at the same time. After getting these ones settled when then had 1 more come later. Needless to say it ended up being a crazy day with me in charge of the mess. I will say though that I am proud that I started the last 3's IVs all on the first try. I was on a roll (and possibly some divine intervention too!). I went running out of work at about 6:45 claiming that I was quitting my job. However, I still love it and of course I wouldn't do that. But this was not the half birthday party I was expecting. I will say though that from all of this I developed a greater respect for the charge nurses that run our floor each day and I have made an official decision that I will never aspire to be one.
Besides that excitement it has been a fun fall. Some fun things I have done are driving the alpine loop, trip to San Francisco (so fun!), downloaded the new Taylor Swift CD for $3.99 on Amazon and love it, I have been attending the gym more faithfully, played hide and seek in the Salt Lake Cemetery, and went to The Pie and Hatch's in SLC! I love fall and I'm sad it is coming to an end but I have enjoyed it!

It has been way too long!

I didn't realize I hadn't posted since June. Time flies! I can't believe summer is over but on to fall (my favorite of the seasons.) Summer was great with much time spent at the pool and seven peaks as well as road trips with my roomies to Boise. I have made it a personal goal to introduce my favorite people to the awesomeness of Boise! It is a hidden treasure for sure! At the beginning of July, my friend Brooke and I went to Seattle and Canada for a week with one of our good friends Stephen. It was a lot of fun. Here are some highlights...


We drove to Seattle from Boise. That next morning we woke up and saw the sights of Seattle. We went to Beth's cafe featured on Man vs. Food. It was delicious. We went and saw the troll statue under the bridge, went to the space needle, then took the Monorail to Pike's Place.
The next day was the fourth of July and we went to Canada to celebrate our country's independence. It was actually kind of sad. We did find a strip of land where there were a bunch of people parked and watching the fireworks from the very edge of the American border. So we did get to see some very small fireworks in the distance. We stayed for the next few days in Victoria, British Columbia. It was beautiful!


In Victoria, we had tea at the Empress hotel, took a haunted walk where they told you ghost stories about all the buildings around where we were staying, and discovered Royal Roads University. The castle looking building below is one of the buildings at the university. It was a really pretty campus.
The next day we drove to Nanaimo and ate Nanaimo bars in Nanaimo. If you have never had a Nanaimo bar put it on your bucket list right now of things to eat before you die because they are incredible. Then we took the ferry to Vancouver.In Vancouver, we stayed at a posh five star hotel. It was great! We saw the Olympic torch, shopped on Robison street, rode beach cruisers around Stanley Park, had the best halibut and chips ever on Granville Island, and went up to Grouse Mountain.
We had such a fun trip and it was a great break from work for me! The next month I moved into a new apartment in Provo. I am loving it. I live at Omni apartments. I think it will be a fun ward and a good change. I love fall!

My Provo Bucket List

For years I have talked about my Provo bucket list of things that I have to do while I'm in Provo. One of the big things on my list was to hike the Y. So this last week my roommate Lindsay and I hiked it with some friends in our ward. It was so fun! It is a hard hike, but well worth it once we got to the top and were able to see the beautiful view of Provo. I have made a goal that I am going to accomplish these things on my list this summer. Tonight I will cross another one off my list...the Sundance chairlift ride. Should be fun!

SUMMER IS HERE!!!!

After a long awaited arrival, summer is here. This weekend Brooke came up to Utah to visit. We were supposed to go to the U2 concert last Thursday but Bono had an "emergency back surgery" and had to postpone all of his tour dates (maybe it will happen in 2011). Since Brooke had work off she came anyway. We had a lot of fun! We hit all our favorite restaurants, Thai Ruby, Paradise Bakery, J Dawgs... We went shopping, laid by the pool, visited friends, went to pool parties, and laid by the pool some more. The weekend was so great! It was 80 degrees all weekend without a cloud in the sky. It made me so happy! We have waited so long for summer and it is finally here. I love it! Time to get a 7 peaks pass...

Birthday Madness

I entitled this post birthday madness because I feel like that's all I have posted about lately is birthdays. We have so many in our family this time of year. We are celebrating everyday! I am going to have to double the amount of times I go to the gym per week because of all the birthday treats I have had. It has been fun! My little niece Taya turned one on April 28th. We had a birthday party at Mandy's house.
Taya loved the cupcake. She ate a little bit of it and then proceeded to start throwing the cupcake on the floor in pieces to say that she was done. Silly girl!
Mandy also made me a little princess cake to match Taya's princess cupcakes. How precious.

On my birthday, my roommates threw me a birthday party and invited some of our friends. It was a good turnout and a lot of fun. On my birthday I also went and had a 1 hour massage. Best thing that ever happened to me! I started my 24th year out a little more relaxed! They made me my favorite cake...better than sex cake. It was delicious! I think that 24 will be a great year!

Trip to B-town

The week after I got home from Cancun (I just published the slideshow of those pics below...enjoy!) I went to Boise. My entire family was there to celebrate Michelle's birthday and her going through the temple. It was a fun weekend! I was able to spend time with my friends Cami and Brooke and my sisters. We went out to dinner for Brooke's birthday with Cami and her boyfriend Vance and then Brooke and I climbed Camel's Back to see the sunset over the city of Boise. It has been a few years since I have done that and I forgot how much I love it! After I returned to Provo, Brooke came to Provo that weekend to claim the remainder of her belongings...(Provo will miss you Brooke...especially me!).
At Thai Ruby with our friends from VP. Love these girls and Thai Ruby. What a great combo!

Lunch with Chris at Zupas

On top of Camel's Back!

The remaining members of the Quad in Boise

Happy Birthday Brooke!

We can go to the tropics, sip pina coladas...

It has been sooo long since I have posted and only have time for a short one right now but life has been busy and fun. Tania, Chelsie, and I went to Cancun at the beginning of this month for a much needed vacation after a busy winter in Pediatrics. We stayed in the Royal Sunset which was right on the crystal clear blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico. We layed on the beach, went parasailing and snorkeling, went on a tour of the Mayan ruins, swam in a cenote which included jumping off a 45 foot platform into the water (Ahhhh! But I did it!), rode bikes through the jungle, and ate incredible Mexican food and drank fruity drinks. Cancun is a beautiful place and I definitely want to go back in the future! It is paradise! A little photo album is to come, but for now I will just give you a little sample...

Shingles

On Saturday morning I noticed a weird rash starting to develop on my back. It kind of hurt worse than a normal rash but I didn't think anything of it. The next day I noticed a rash on the same place on my stomach that it was on on my back. Sunday night I put cortisone cream on it before I went to bed. I woke up Monday morning and they were both bigger with larger red bumps. I was at work that day and noticed a sharp pain that seemed to be going through my body from my stomach to my back. It was uncomfortable so I took Ibuprofen when I got home and finally started to think that this was something more than just a normal rash. I went to work on Tuesday and asked one of the resident doctors that works on our floor to look and see. The verdict...shingles. So he wrote me a prescription. The one good thing that came out of this...a free doctor's visit. All I have to say is shingles is very painful and this medicine has taken a lot of energy out of me. Yuck!

SNOW Fun

Last Friday night, my roommates and I set out to go to our Stake Activity, a barndance in Elk Ridge, not knowing that we would be in for a little adventure we didn't bargain for. That night it was snowing really hard, but being from Idaho, I enlisted as the fearless lead driver of our 2 car train. I was the leader of the group...that was our first mistake. It was so dark that it was hard to find the right road signs out in the middle of nowhere so we kept having to turn around. We finally made it to the point where we just needed to find the road that the barn was on and I once again missed it so I turned around in the driveway of one of the houses close by. The turning around part didn't happen though because I turned into this driveway and got stuck so I just kept driving. So by the time I finally decided to stop, I had a long way to go to get my car out of the snow. When I first started driving into the driveway to turn around, I obviously didn't think I would get stuck or I wouldn't have gone in the first place. So we tried for about a half hour to get my car unstuck, while I was almost in tears because my tires were smoking from spinning so hard as we tried to rock my car out of the snow. Luckily our roommate Emily's boyfriend was there to provide some assistance. After a long failed effort we decided to go up to the door of the house. Kind of a walk of shame. He was a kind older man and told us that his son had done the same thing that week and he would tow us out of his driveway with his truck. So he comes around and pulls out his tow rope (since we all have one laying around...right?) and hooks it to my car and his truck and drags me out of his driveway. He was so nice to do that for us!
My poor car! Clearly made for looks and not driving in the snow!
So we drive back up the road a little bit and find the dance which was very fun! On our way home it took us about the same time it took us to get there (1 1/2 hours). It was so icy down the road that leads up to the barn that each car had to go down one at a time or they would slide into each other or off the road if they tried to brake too hard. I was very grateful to get home and get some rest. I no longer will ever even consider driving in a blizzard! I have been scarred for life!

These are a few of my NEW favorite things!

Happy New Year! It has been so long since I posted! Christmas was good. I actually spent Christmas Eve and 6 hours on the afternoon of Christmas day at the hospital. I was able to go home for a week after and spend time with good friends and family! It was a great break and much needed!

2010 has been great so far! I have come to the conclusion that the less eventful your New Year's Eve celebration is the better the next year (and the terrible month of January) will be because you are not starting the year off with failed expectations for the funnest night ever!

So onto my favorite things...My 2 new favorite things at the beginning of this new decade...

1. The Cocoa Bean - It is this new gourmet cupcake cafe in Provo...soooo good! My personal favorites so far, Butterfinger, Better than Whatever, Dirty Turtle, Coconut Lime, and Ultimate Brownie...basically those are all the flavors I have tried so far and they are all delicious!
2. The song Heartbreak Warfare by John Mayer. Story of my life and it is perfect, happy, and hopeful!