vacation resort:MWMC

Hey all this is a copy of the letter I wrote to my brother regarding my trip to the hospital. WARNING! There is info in this you may not want to know. WARNING!

Hey bro, I don't know if you will be able to upload this picture or not. Anyway, it is a pic of me in a hospital bed...lol yep in the hospital. I had to be rushed in to the ER on wednesday at around 230 AM. Meg brought me in. This is the story; on tuesday night, aarons BDAY we all had a wild drinking party at the house and I was throwing up, haha JUST KIDDING about the drinking party. But seriously on tuesday night meg and I were at the house and we ate our dinner, which was green salad, that's it, it had just lettuce, cucumbers, bell peppers, broccoli, turkey and cheese. So I ate the salad and then we went and played bball for Aarons bday at the church. The whole time I was playing my stomach was killing me (just thought I had to go number 2) so I tried and couldn't. Anyway, we went back to the house and mom and meg just told me it was gas or that maybe the fresh peppers was upsetting my stomach. So meg and I went home. When we got there I took a hot shower hoping the heat would help. It didn't. So by this time its around 11pm and we are home and my stomach is still killin me. So I tried everything I know to help create a BM (tmi) everything except Ex-lax because on the box it said not to if you have abdominal pain. This continued on for another couple hours. In between my efforts I was calling my mother and meg was calling my mother in law and all kept encouraging me to do other things, thinking I was being a baby about it, and I tried all of those things...none of them helped. So at about 215am meg called the ER in Tooele and they said to bring me in. You see, being the tuff guy I am(that I try to be), no tuffness could stack up to this sharp pain. When we arrived they immediately did some blood work and felt around trying to find out where the pain was coming from exactly. (Some of these words or sentences may not make the most sense, I am still in the hospital and on pain meds) after the tests came back they knew something was up so they scheduled me for a CT scan. I had to drink I swear a half gallon of dye to prepare for the scan, it was disgusting. While this was happening I knew I wanted and needed a blessing...so with dad out of town in Dallas I turned to Zach and Boone. Meg called them and within 45 minutes they were at my side using the power of the priesthood to calm me down and ease my pain. I am so grateful they came by, it was a big sacrafice for them to just get up at 330am to come to the hospital especially when both of their wives are at home pregnant. Thank goodness for them, it helped me sleep while I was waiting for the scan. At 530am they came and woke me up to have the scan done. The results of the scan showed that my appendix, that is supposed to be 6mm in diamater and about as long as a pinky finger, was actually 16mm in diameter and more than twice as long as it should have been. So I was scheduled for surgery at 930am to have it removed! I don't remember a thing from the time they took me from my room for the operation. All I know is that I was in the deepest sleep ever! Meg and mom told me that after I woke up I was asking them why they forgot my body, I don't remember that lol. Anyway after I was actually awake awake and able to focus it was about 1PM already. I kept having meg lay in bed with me, because she was exhausted. Poor meg was awake for more than 24 hours before she got to actually sleep, and even then she only slept for about an hour and a half. I am so grateful for all she did for me and for all the sacrifices she has made and continues to make. She is the perfect wife, hopefully one day you will find someone almost as good ;) back to my hospital vacation: at around midnight last night meg and I were sleeping in the bed and I all of a sudden i was dripping sweat and needed to use the restroom and was a little dizzy, so I really needed to get to the bathroom...but didn't want to wake meg up...so luckily the CNA, jeremy, walked in right at that moment and he helped me to the bathroom. After I filled up a 32 ounce jug I felt like I was going to pass out, so I hollered for a little help, jeremy came in and I leaned on him while he walked me to the bed...I was about to collapse and then all of a sudden something was working its way up my asaphagus...so jeremy ran and grabbed my tub, I lost it three times! Meg woke up to the sound of me throwing everything up, I felt really bad...and for those who hate throwing up like I do, throwing up after having surgery on your stomach was the most pain I have felt in a LONG time and maybe ever that I can remember. Anyway after that fiasco everything has been looking up. Meg is at work today so mom picked me up from the hospital and we are on our way home now. Well bro sorry this was so long but I actually had something exciting to write about so I thought I would take advantage. I hope that things have gotten better with your comp! Exciting to hear about the babtisms! Also good to hear that you understand its about hard work and obedience, but also having fun too. I love you bro!

Love, andy

Well I've been promising my family in Nebraska an update for about a month now, and I'm sorry to say that I still don't have pictures of our new place to post on here but they will be up soon.

Things are going really well for us here. Andrew is still working for Wells Fargo and taking online classes from Utah State and I'm working at noble finance and going to The U. I must say that I've become quite keen of the University of Utah. I love my classes! Here they are for those of you who are wondering:

Teaching Health in Secondary Education

Health & Human Relations

Personal Resiliency

Facilitating Healthy Behaviors

Community Health Issues

Pilates

This upcoming week is going to be pretty busy. I have tests in 4 of my classes, 2 reaction papers due and two lesson plans due but I'm excited for the challenge and bizarrely motivated.

This weekend Andrew and I went to Ogden to spend some time with our friends Paul and Amelia. We had so much fun. We went to an institute dinner/dance, then we went to the end of the winter festival where we got to watch the fireworks, after that we went to back to Paul and Amelias to play a little Blokus (awesome game! for anyone who hasn't played it I would recommend it) and lastly we watched New Moon at the college. I don't think the boys were too crazy about the movie ( Andrew slept through half of it) but us girls enjoyed it.

Today was our first valentines day together as a married couple. Because it is Sunday and we are house sitting we were somewhat limited to what we could do, but of course that didn't stop Andrew. He made me a nice, what we like to call, Linner (The meal between lunch and dinner). It was easily the best valentines day ever because I got to spend it with my husband.

Well I should probably attempt to fall asleep because it is 4 AM, but before I do I'll post a few pics from our weekend. Hope all is well with everyone and hope everyone had an incredible Valentines Day.

Nebraska Fam, I promise to take some pics of our home soon. Sorry it's taking me so long. I love and miss you all!

He Brought home chocolate covered Strawberries, He knows me to too well.

The Dinner Andy Made me

Our Home Sweet (furnitureless) Home

We are finally getting settled in to our little place and we love it! Even though we have no furniture, it is awesome.
I have already been working at my new store since Tuesday and Megan is organizing the house and preparing for her first semester at the U.
Before I continue, I have to go on a little rant about the University I have been so loyal to since I can remember. The U of U has been incredibly hard to deal with!!!! We cant get a hold of anyone important and no one seems to know what the heck is going on around there!! Class is supposed to start on Monday but we cannot get the important things taken care of like financial aid and for some reason they have her listed as dependent still! It is ridiculous.
If we can get those things taken care of she should be ready to roll on Monday.
I am having a hard time updating the blog...not to sure what to write about. I am still with Wells Fargo...we are watching that 70's show...we got our washing machine and dryer today and have been tag teaming the laundry! Fun times together!
Speaking of being together, today is exactly 7 months from the day we got hitched! The past months have been the best of my life and I am not sure how it could get any better! I love it!
Today we celebrated with a little cafe rio...mmmm we missed that while we were away. Delicious!
Ben is serving at the bottom of the world right now in an area called Tierra Del Fuego a small island on the southern tip of south america. He seems to be doing just fine!
Mari and the baby are at my parents house and let me tell you, she is beautiful! The baby that is. Steve is in Afghanistan and I believe he will be home for a couple weeks in February.
Mal started school at UVU today and only dislikes one of her classes, the one Meg convinced her to take lol.
Aaron is living the easy life in high school and just purchased the sweetest looking Sax I have ever seen.
Bailey is at the Junior High and has the attitude to prove it! (side note:Bailey is about 5' 7" now, just a couple shy of me...i will most likely end up being the shortest in the fam)
Well I hope this was good enough of an update...personally I feel like Meg does a much better job at blogging than I do.

It's Official

This week has been pretty action-packed with all of our Christmas parties, a wedding, my mom visiting, Haley visiting, packing... yes I said packing and yes we are moving. So this action-packed week leaves me with no excuses to not blog because we actually have things to blog about.
I'll start with the big news that was made official last monday. Andrew and I are moving back to Utah On December 27th. Andy will be transferring through Wells Fargo which is nice because he enjoys working there and I will start school at The U in January. We are going to be living in Stansbury in the townhomes next to the highway. I'm a little nervous about going from a house into something smaller because it was hard enough to find room for all of our stuff in the house, I have a feeling we will be purging some of our things to eliminate clutter. Overall we are very excited to start a new-fangled adventure!
This past weekend we went to my Cousin, Levi's Wedding. We had alot of fun spending time with family and of course dancing. Andrew got to show my family his awesome, gangster dance moves. I think my mom loved them the most, she kept telling people to watch "her son in-law's" dance moves. She was pretty proud, as she should be because his dance moves are quite remarkable haha. My friend Haley Came out sunday night. It was so nice to have her here and just hangout like we used to. And like usual Andy showed us a good time, we are always laughing when he's around because he is always giving us reasons to make fun of him. I swear he does it on purpose but it's fine with me because we get a good laugh. Speaking of Andrew making me laugh, last night Andrew picked me up from work and as we're walking up stairs, he takes off his suit jacket and there is toilet paper hanging out of the top of his pants and not just a little bit. I'm talking 4 or 5 squares dangling out of there. I laughed for about an hour and have been telling the story all day.
Well I'm training the girl who will be taking my place, so I better get back to work. We love everyone back home and can't wait to see you soon.

Wicked Cool

I am updating the blog because of our weekend we spent down in KC Missouri.

It was the first time for me, andy. The city was pretty big and really dirty. As we were looking for our exit we accidentally missed it and ended up going in to Kansas City, Kansas. It was the dirtiest city I have ever seen in my life. For not being that big and definitely not the biggest city i have ever been to by a long shot (Toronto) it was amazingly dirty and terribly ugly! Luckily we found our way back to Mizzou and found our hotel.

After checking in to our hotel we decided to go check out some of the local restaurants, preferably a BBQ joint (KC is known for there barbecue). We made our way down to what they call the Plaza where we were directed to the location of Fiorelas Jack Stack Barbecue. If you think you know what barbecue is or what it should smell or taste like, it is very likely that you have NO IDEA what that is unless you have eaten at this KC original. It is near impossible for me to describe the aromas and the out of this world tastes that they provide at this institution.

After stuffing ourselves past what I thought was possible we made our way back to the hotel to sleep it off so that we would have enough energy for that evenings activities.

That night we went to see the musical Wicked. It was amazing! Easily the best show I have seen live and i have seen quite an array of shows. Everything about it was awesome, the best part was the girl who play Elphaba, the wicked witch, I have never in my life heard someone sing so well. I am not sure if anyone has heard this girl before but if you have you are lucky!
I think Meg really enjoyed herself, it was her first musical besides the high schools Les Mis earlier this year.

The entire trip was really nice and especially because we were just away from the everyday things in our lives and alone with each other.

This week we are trying to figure out a game plan for Christmas...it is kind of hard. With so many families doing so many different things makes it difficult.

One more thing about the trip. We had heard a lot of good things about these places called "Waffle House". Horrible, don't go there...dirty workers, dirty store, dirty tables, dirty dishes, dirty food.

That's SICK!

And not in the cool way. Yes, Andrew and I are are both sick :(. It all started Sunday morning, we woke up, Andy was fine but I wasn't feeling well (sinus infection). Then sunday night we got home from a little game night at my Aunts and Andy starts getting the chills and achy body, you know the typical flu symptoms and it all went down hill from there. Monday and Tuesday Andrew stayed home sick from work. I felt so bad for him. I got home from work on Monday and he tried standing up, his whole body was shaking uncontrolably. By Tuesday his temperature had gone down a little and by wednesday he was left with a very sore throat and an ear ache. I on the other hand have had it easy compared to him, a minor sore throat and the loss of my voice. We had fun with my voice last night. I usually don't sing in front of Andrew because it's just not a pretty things. Even in church I've admitted to just pretending to sing. Anyway, last night I told Andy I would sing for him because I actually had an excuse for being bad this time. We had a good laugh. Everytime I would try to hit a high note my voice would either go out or squeak really bad and go higher than I've ever heard my voice go. I don't think Andrew could deny that he was impressed by my singing ability.

Well I better get back to work, just wanted to give a quick update!

Here are a couple Random pics we've taken the last month

Visiting the Fam back in Utah
Andy and Elliott Jones

Going on 5 months!?

Well I thought I would check our blog because it'sbeen a while and I wanted to see what Andrew blogged about last night and I realized Andy has posted the last two posts so it is my turn. Yes, my husband enjoys blogging. I know, I'm lucky.

It's weird to think and I can hardly believe it but in only 6 days Andy an dI will have been married for 5 months. It's gone by so fast but I guess that's what happens when you're having fun and I must say we're having a blast. We're staying busy with work and school but we always find time for fun. Andy won a game at work called "toss up". We've been playing it almost every night, it's quite entertaining. We've also played office trivia a few times. The first time we played we were with Tony, Amy, Kevin and Whitney and I totally got dominated. Ever since then I try to pay attention to the details when I watch the office. My goal is to eventually be able to beat Kevin and Whitney but I don't think that will be happening anytime soon.

A couple months back I think I blogged about a kitten we got. His name is Elliott Jones and he is one expensive cat. At first we thought we would get a puppy but after some consideration we decided that we didn't have time for a puppy and we had other things we'd rather put our money towards. I thought that a cat would be much easier and cheaper. Andy's excuse for this was that he is allergic to cats and it would make him sick. Come to find out that was a lie Andrew told me because he doesn't like cats... except Elliott. We found Elliott at my Grandma and Grandpa's farm. He kept following Andrew and bawling until Andy picked him up. Andrew said we could keep him if he stayed outside ( at this time Andy was still sticking to his story that he was allergic). We figured the cat itself is free, we'll get it food and come toys and be set right? WRONG! This cheap cat turned into a $600 cat after vet bills and he is still on his medication and has to go back to the vet next week. Hopefully he will be all better. Anyway we've decided we have the coolest cat in the world. His personality is a mix between a human and a dog. He begs like a dog. He will sit in front of the fridge and bawl when he wants milk, then by the sink when he wants food and when we eat... well we have to kennel him up when we eat because his begging is so out of control. He also goes to the door when he has to go to the bathroom, just like a dog. Elliott has this little mousey toy that he loves. He carries it around the house, sleeps with it and even cleans it like it's his baby. Needless to say, he loves his mouse. He also love Andy. It's so fun to watch them play every night. you can probably guess that Andy's little secret about his allergies came out. He was only saying that because he didn't want a cat, but now that we have El he loves him.

Ever wondered what it's like to have to jump start your car everytime you want to go somewhere, including having to ask your co-workers to jump you so you can make it home? If so, ask Andrew. Yes, Little Green is finally dying. The first time it wouldn't start we thought the cabin light got left on, the second time we thought it was the headlights but the third time we knew something was wrong. We got a new battery and that helped for about a day but now we have to jump it everytime. anyone who has seen Andrew's 1960, I mean 1995 Dodge Avenger knows it's not worth putting much money into. So we've had the pleasure of car shopping :). For me it's a pleasure but not so much for Andrew. We've just been looking around for now but I think soon we'll be making a purchase.

Overall things are going great here in Nebraska. Married life is the best and I love it. I guess it's easy when you have a wonderful husband like I do.
Well I should probably go get ready. We're having dinner and playing games at my aunts tonight. We'll try not to wait so long to update the blog again. We miss and love everyone back in Utah.

A Mission, A Niece, A Holiday, A Cold?

Today is Halloween! One year ago yesterday I proposed to Megan, she said No...not really.

A lot has happened this last month. Ben left on his mission to Argentina on the 14th, Mari had our little niece sofia on the 22nd and...well nothing much besides those two events. Which I must admit seem like quite a lot.

Ben is currently in the MTC in Provo where he is learning the spanish language. He is going to be serving in the Buenos Aires North mission. Which interestingley not only covers the northern part of the city Buenos Aires but also the southern most part of south america, where it reaches ridiculously low temps. So far, so good for Elder Vera.

Litlle Sofia Raquel Barton joined the fam on the 22nd and weighed a little over 9 LBS! Good thing Mari had her early! Both mom and baby are doing great and Dad, steve, is still over in the desert. (Sofia wore her camoflauge army suit for halloween! :) )

As for Meg and I here in good ole Elkhorn we are doing just fine. Jobs are good and school is stressful. We have recently been called to serve as primary teachers and we have had a couple of lessons already. We are loving it so far and the kids are all really great and well behaved. We have 8 total in the class and next sunday is our primary program, so anyone in the area that feels up to coming it will be at 12:45 pm on November 7 in the LDS church house at 180th and Maple.

Megan seems to have come down with a cold. Sadly she has been waking up with a lot of drainage and the sore throat, aching ears and pounding head ache that comes with it. I am hoping she gets better soon and that she does not pass it on to me!

Halloween was awesome! We just handed out candy, hung out with our little cousin and watched football (our utes got lucky).

Anyway, gotta run...if anyone needs candy let me know we have WAY too much left over!

utes, huskers, school

I have not updated in a long while. I have been incredibley busy with work and school. Taking 15 online credits and working full time is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Last week college football started and I love it! The utes beat up on the ags! And this week meg and I are going to the husker game at Memorial Stadium, thanks to Randy for getting us tickets. I am really excited about that, the place is huge and there will be around 100000 people there. Meg and I have been pretty blessed lately and man are we grateful. She is such an amazing wife and supporter of me. She also does little things I don't deserve. I definately married up!
I am currently working at wells fargo and am loving it. Though I can't wait to get promoted to a banker, I know I have to be patient and prove myself. I better get to going. Go utes!