Catch Up...

It's been awhile. I have been doing bunches of lovely things, but life for the most part is pretty simple. Go to work, sleep, eat, exercise, hang out with friends and family, the occasional adventure. Stuff I don't really think is that intersting when I compare it to all of my friends blogs with their vacations and children and other fun and exciting adventures.

Basically I am still working at Timpanogos Hospital which I am still enjoying immensely. I love my coworkers and everything I am learning. I moved to a new apartment which I just decorated for Christmas and love very much! My roommate is a clean freak as am I, so it works out nicely. I am enjoying time with Eric who is back in Provo, Marybeth my dear friend who lives here, and other awesome people. I have a new ward which is awesome! I just got called as a ward missionary which is scary. I have never had a calling like this before and it is a little out of my comfort zone. I would love advice:)

We have had a lovely fall here in Utah County. Beautiful colors, nice warm weather, exciting BYU football games! Marybeth and I went on some AWESOME hikes.

Thanksgiving was spent at the hospital. A different way to spend the holidays, but I was so grateful the entire day for a good job, for my health, for the knowledge that the Lord has blessed me with. I was also grateful because I get Christmas off this year!!! I am one blessed, happy girl and I feel very fortunate for enerything that I have.

Preston is doing really well on his mission in Mozambique. He writes some pretty crazy experiences in his letters. Eric is surviving another semester at BYU in the hardest major on campus. Cameron is dating, yes actually dating! He has been on a couple of dates so far this school year. Mom is selling insurance again and is anxiously waiting for open enrollment to end. Dad is busy with work and finishing his MBA.

I am loving this time of year. Christmas is the best! I love the excess of love that I feel the entire month of December. I am going to continue the tradition that I started last year and read the Gospels through the month of Decemeber. This was an awesome experience last year because I got to think about and read about Jesus every day of the month.

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of months:
Eric and I at a football game

 Marybeth and I at a football game

 Hike to Squaw Peak-beautiful!

 Hike to top of Y Mountain. We found this awesome flag at the top.

 Family came up for a football game...it was great!

New Boat, Mountain biking, and Bruises...

 So my parents bought a boat...finally! It is so much fun to finally have one. They have been boating a few times, but I got home the weekend before last to go on a boating/camping trip. My good friend Marybeth was able to come up to Idaho as well and we had a blast! We went to palisades reservoir. Above is a picture of a moose that we saw. We loaded up the boat with a tent and other camping gear and found an awesome campsite on the other side of the lake.

 The mosquitoes were horrible, so we kept a fire going most of the time we were at the campsite. This is the view from our campsite...gorgeous. We saw a deer hanging out by the lake as well. The campsite was great and there was even a pulpit and benches set up back in the wood which we attributed to scouts.

 Another view of the campsite.

 Cam, Dad, and me by the campfire. We caught some nice water that evening and everyone but Mom and Dad got to ski. It was a blast. We had some yummy tin foil dinners that we ate in the tent to escape mosquitoes!

 So peaceful! The next morning Marybeth joined us and we had a pretty full day of skiing, wake boarding, and just enjoying the sunshine!

 The water was rough in the morning and this is the best picture of me skiing. Not the greatest ski trip I've ever had, but it was fun!

 Here is Marybeth who was a pro at everything she tried! She got out of the wake on the wake board and handled it like a pro!

 It was a fabulous day!

 Marybeth also tried skiing which she said she hadn't done in years. Here is a pic of her dropping a ski! We were all shocked to see her try it because it took us years to get to that point. Look at how steady she is though! It was so much fun to have her around for the weekend! Thanks for coming Marybeth!

 Here is Eric cutting it up! He is getting really good! Other events of the weekend included watching the Harry Potter movie, and riding the horse, and playing games, and a kayaking trip with Grandpa at Market Lake which was a first for me. We saw a ton of beautiful birds and it was really cool. It was also my parents 26th wedding anniversary! Congrats to the best parents ever!

 This last Monday I went with my friend T to do some biking at Sundance ski resort. We rode the lift up and rode our bikes down on the most awesome trails ever! Sundance was amazingly beautiful and it was such a fun day. I learned a lot about riding my bike on tricky trails.

 Here is a pic of T and me on the lift up.

This is out of order, but here is Cam skiing. he is getting real good and even dropped a ski several times with some good success.

So despite my attempts to ride well at Sundance I did crash a couple of times, once in the gravel, and once on some wet grass. I came down harder than I realized and when I got home I discovered the bruising that was a result of the falls. You can't see it in the picture but this bruise on my leg was VERY swollen and painful. This is the first or second day after it happened. I am still recovering from these wounds, but I am no where near as sore as I was.

This is the smaller bruise on my other leg. Also rather painful, but it doesn't hurt at all now. It is still a nice purple color however!

Yet another picture of the big bruise. I have never had a bruise this large in my life!

And a finishing picture of Sundance area! It was so much fun.

This Saturday Marybeth and I are competing in a triathlon. I work the night before, so that will be a little difficult, but we are mostly doing it for the fun! It is a race sponsored by a singles stake down here. The swim is 600 yards, run 5 K, and bike 12.5 miles. If I can stay awake and I am not too sore from my bruises it should be a lot of fun! I will try to take pictures!

First real week of summer!

Feels like summer just barely started and it is already July! Can't hardly believe it! I did however get to spend some time with my family this week and it finally felt like summer was here. We had a lovely camping trip to Island Park and spent our time biking, kayaking, water skiing with Uncle Scott, Aunt Karen, and Grandpa C, and making banana boats and smores! It was a marvelous trip despite mosquitoes and wind!

Other activities for the trip home included playing games, swimming with Cam, another kayaking trip with Grandpa and Mom, playing with the kittens outside, and a nice bbq with friends. It was a blast! I love summer!

My friend Marybeth and I tried out a new restaurant in Provo tonight. It was a crepe place that was amazing. Let me just say their crepes were gourmet! I had a turkey pesto crepe that was delicious and we shared a smore crepe that was excellent!

Mission, Hawaii, Les Miserables, and other Fun Events...

So Hawaii was amazing! In fact I have been so overwhelmed with trying to come up with the time to blog about it that I have put it off. I kept a record every day in Hawaii in my journal luckily, so I just need to type that up and get some pictures together. I will just post a few pictures today and then get my act together. I will just say that it lived up to every expectation that I had and beyond. We had the nicest time being together as a family before Preston's mission.
Speaking of Preston's mission he left today to the MTC. Mom, Dad, and I dropped him off and I got to spend the day with Mom and Dad which was nice. It was really hard to say goodbye to Pres. He is such a good kid and such an important part of our family. We are going to miss him a bunch. Two years is a long time, but it is worth it. He was so excited to leave that he barely sat through a picture before he  was walking down the sidewalk. He spoke the Sunday before Memorial day, so I got to go home for that. However, before I went home my Mom came and spent Saturday with me. We had SO much fun! We ate out, had a facial in our very own spa in my apartment, and did some shopping. It was the funnest day ever with just me and my mom. We are definitely going to do it again. That night we went to the play Les Miserables at the Capitol Theater. Words fail. It was absolutely wonderful and it was so fun to have my mom there. We drove back to Firth that night, getting home at 3 in the morning. Preston spoke the next day and did an excellent job. Other events of the trip home included Preston's birthday, water skiing in 53 degree water, and of course visiting my sweet Grandma's grave.
As for the job, still going great. I am almost done with orientation and I am starting night shift again next week. I am not very excited about that, but it won't be forever. I am looking forward to the rest of the summer!

Here are a couple of pictures from Hawaii, more to come later!

Updates...

So I moved to Provo about a month and a half ago to start my new job in the Intensive Care at Timpanogos Regional Hospital. I LOVE being in Provo again and most of all I love my new job. My coworkers are so supportive and encouraging. I have learned so much in the short time that I have started in the ICU. I have learned how to use new equipment; I have learned about new medications, and new diagnoses. I even got to go and watch an open heart surgery which was a dream come true. I have also been taking a new intensive care class which has been extremely educational. I have been really impressed with the hospital. Everyone seems really professional.
I have been enjoying the warmer weather recently. I have taken a few nice bike rides and enjoyed reading outside. I also recently learned how to index, so I am even getting some family history done. It has been fun spending time with Eric recently as well. We have done some fun things like the Festival of Colors which was a crazy Indian festival that we went to where they throw colored chalk up in the air. It was a lot of fun.
We were able to go home for conference weekend and it was a beautiful weekend. The weather was really nice and we were able to ride the new horse that my family bought! He is a big, tall, beautiful black horse and I can't remember his name right now.
In other exciting news we are headed to Hawaii in a week and a half!!! We are all so excited. We are going to be spending 10 days on Oahu and Kaui! I plan on taking a ton of pictures and enjoying every second of the trip. Hawaii has been my dream vacation for years.

Here are some pictures from the last couple of months:

 Skiing at Jackson Hole has become a yearly tradition and it was so much fun to have Spencer and of course Eric with us again! It was a beautiful day.

 Dad and Eric at Jackson Hole. I was so glad that the boys all had helmets this trip! What is with the tongue Eric?

 My good friends from Ogden, Melody and Lindsey. We had a fabulous weekend up in Tabiona, Utah with a bunch of people that we didn't know! We made new friends and had fun snowmobiling, sledding, dancing, and playing games.

The snowman we built up at Tabiona!

 Had a nice cross country ski trip with my grandpa, dad, and Nick, a friend that I met up at Tabiona.

 Nick and me skiing.

Nick's birthday. We went to the play A Tale of Two Cities, which was amazing!

Preston's mission call...

I almost forgot to mention...Prestion has his mission call!!! He is going to the Mozambique, Maputu mission and will report June 8th. He will be speaking Portugese (and probably a few other dialects in the meantime!!!). He is very excited to go and I know he will be an awesome missionary! Here are a few facts about his mission:

• Has the #2 highest death rate in the world
• The country that has the #1 highest death rate is also in his mission, Angola.
• According to Preston, Angola only has 1 branch with less than 10 members.
• The median age in Mozambique is 17.
• The percentage of people living with HIV/AIDS is 12%
• He has to get a bunch of crazy immunizations before he leaves!
• Official language of Mozambique is Portugese, but it is not the most spoken language in the country

We are super excited for Preston and know he will be safe and happy! I am so grateful for missionary work and for the great experience it is for my brothers.

Change is in the Air...

So I have some major changes coming up in the next few weeks. I interviewed for an Intensive Care Unit position at Timpanogos Regional Medical Center and they offered me the job earlier this week. It really is what I have been hoping for since day one of being a nurse. Not the position neccessarily, but the move to the Orem/Provo area. I am excited to find a place in the next couple of weeks and then start a new job. It should be a good career move as a step up from the Telemetry unit that I currently work on. Some of the new patients I will see will include critical shock, sepsis, post open heart surgery, acute stroke patients. My patient load will drop from 4-5 patients to 2 patients. They will train me for 4 months at which time I will hopefully be ready to go. It will be a lot of learning in a very short amount of time because I have a lot of new equipment and procedures to learn. I am excited by the atmosphere of the hospital. I am excited to be closer to my brother Eric. There are some sad things to leave behind: good friends, my current job, and my wonderful family away from my family, Brad and Linda Waddoups. However, this well get me out of my comfort zone and increase my learning opportunities.

So...if you hear of anyone needing a place to live in South Ogden, send them my way! I need to sell my contract!!!

Holidays!

So this is a little late in coming, but I thought I would mention the holiday season. I worked quite a bit, including Christmas and New Years Eve, but I enjoyed the days off. My family and I went to see the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert with David Archuleta. That was a lot of fun. I drove home several weeks in a row and enjoyed having Eric and Preston there on their breaks from school. Christmas Day I got off work at 0730 and was home by 1000. We opened presents and then I slept for a little. We were able to spend time with both sets of grandparents which was nice too.

A few weekends ago I went to Provo and spent some time with family there. My cousin Leslie left on a mission and she was speaking in church. It was fun to see Christensen family. I spent the night with Brenda and Travis's family and had a riot with them. We played games and made breakfast and had a good time. Eric and I had a blast. We went shopping and I got more clothes than I have in a while because Eric kept telling me I should buy them. We also went skiing at Sundance. Conditions weren't the best, but we had a really good time. We also went to the BYU-TCU basketball game and had a great time there as well.

My birthday was this last Sunday and I was able to go home after church. I had a nice time with that as well.

This coming Saturday we are all skiing at Jackson Hole. Hopefully I can get some pictures taken and share soon.