Catch Up

 It's been a few weeks since I last posted and honestly I don't have an excuse.  Last time I posted I was in the middle of my Nebraska vacation.   I consider my trip to be a complete success.  I was able to spend alot of quality time with my dad, I spent a day with my Grandma Pat & Aunt Julie, I visited with Grandma Sonya and spent a day with Kyle riding horses and eating Sushi.  The only thing that could have made it better would be seeing all of my other grandparents and Stacey & the kids. 

While I was in Nebraska I got a job offer for a job I had applied for.  It's at the same place I currently work (the treatment center), but I was able to switch to full time days, which is a huge blessing for us.  Before I was working the swing shift three days a week, but since I'm not taking classes this summer I really wanted to work full time and the fact that I get to work during the day makes it even better. I love my new schedule at work. I work from 6 am to 2 pm. I'm still having a hard time getting up that early, but I love getting off at 2.  After I got the job I made my fall school schedule and all of my classes will be in the afternoon after work. It's going to be busy semester but I'm excited for the challange.

Random Trip Pictures

 My cousin Zach and I

 Roasting starbursts on the fire

There were bald eagle nests along the river.  I saw about six eagles on the day I took these pictures.

Hole In The Boat

Most would disagree, but since I've been in Nebraska the weather has been amazing!!  The first few days were extrememly HOT (2 days in a row temperatures were record high).  While everyone was complaining about how hot it was, my dad and I would be out airboating on the river.  On Tuesday, after being on the river for only 20 minutes, my dad was getting ready to go under a bridge and was paying attention to whether or not the boat would fit under it when the current got a hold of the boat and took us into the side of the bridge and put a hole in the side of the boat.  At first I was a little nervous because water was spraying in the boat.  Fortunately, there's a pump in the boat that just pumped the water out and we were able to go from sand bar to sand bar.

Our attempt to stop the water was to plug the hole with a t-shirt, that helped for about three seconds.

Mushroom Hunting

I think it's considered a sin to be from Nebraska and never have gone mushroom hunting.  Both of my parents had told stories of their mushroom hunting experiences, but I never really knew what it was all about.  So my second day here in Nebraska my dad took me out on his airboat and we stopped at his "mushroom hunting" spot.  Unfotunately for my legs, I was not informed that I would be hiking through a forest full of poison ivy, ticks and sharp bushes.  I was wearing shorts and flip flops.  I think I was more worried about looking for poison ivy than mushrooms.  I don't know exactly what poison ivy looks like, but I've been told it has four leaves on top,so I tried to avoid anything that resembled a four leaf plant .  We hunted for about 20 minutes and only found old mushrooms.  (There's only about a week span that the mushrooms are good and we were a few days late it looked like)  So though I've been mushroom hunting, I've still never eaten these mushrooms.



Me sporting my sceptical face



The forest we hunted in



This is what the mushrooms look like , this ones a little old but you get the idea  (Not was I expected)



Birthday Pictures

                                              This one makes Andrew's hand look like my own.... SICK!

                                                      Just playing around

Finals

This week was finals week.  Finals are something that I usually dread, but at the same time look forward to because it means the semester is coming to an end.  That couldn't be more true for this semester because for the first time in two years, I'm going to get a summer break!  I had contemplated taking a full schedule of classes over the summer and quickly decided that I NEEDED a break even if that meant that I might not finish as soon.  I took my first final last Friday in my Physiology class and then wrapped it up this morning by taking my Psychology final.  My summer break will officially start tomorrow when I arrive in Nebraska for my week long vacation full of lots of boating, fishing, friends and family.  I can't wait!

Happy Birthday Andy!

We celebrated Andrew's 25th Birthday Yesterday.  I'm reluctant to admit this, but with his birthday falling on the Monday of finals week, I wasn't planning on doing anything too big for his birthday.  Well when Andrew heard this he quickly guilt tripped me into changing my mind.  I heard "It's my quarter of  century birthday" and "but hun, I'm going to be 25".  After that I decided I was being a bit selfish for not planning something.  On Saturday, two days before his birthday, I decided to call some of our family and invite them over for a little birthday party.  Sunday night we went to my parents for his birthday dinner and then on monday his family came to our house for dinner.  I'm always a little nervous to cook for people other than Andrew because though the food usually tastes good, it often looks strange, but I think it turned out ok.  Andrew also wanted to have his moms chocolate sheet cake that she always makes for birthday, but instead of having her make it he wanted me to make it.  Andrew doesn't know this, but after getting the recipe from Kristine, I thought it would be safer to just stick with a box cake and add a few extra ingredients.  I did stick with Kristine's frosting recipe, which is the best part and the cake turned out pretty dang good for my first try.  Andrew even rated it a 10 out of 10 :) ( I don't think he's ever rated anything I've made below a 10 so maybe he is just being nice or is just extremely happy that I attempted).  After our family left we rented the movie Black Swan.  We had heard that is was a really good movie, but both Andrew and I were a little creeped out and didn't care for it too much.  Other than the movie, Andrew's Birthday was a success.  It was nice to be able to spend time together and with our families.

Urine and Bunnies

Megan wanted me to write about a couple of experiences I have had the past couple of weeks at the treatment center Megan and I work at. I can’t use any names in this post because of confidential reasons; however I may not need them to tell these tales.

Urine:
While working one afternoon a client was acting out, arguing about everything, mouthing off and defiantly doing exactly opposite of what he is asked and expected to do. One of the main therapeutic types of sessions they do is a group session where all of the clients in the boys house get together to discuss their issues. While everyone else was setting their chairs up in a circle for group this particular client was sitting on the ground refusing to move and refusing to give a reason to why he was sitting on the ground. At this same time I was trying to decide whether or not to sit in one of the plastic chairs included in the group circle or...sit on the comfortable couch outside of the circle. I was told by another staff it was fine to sit outside the circle. I slowly backed away from the group and grabbed the pillow that was lying on top of the cushion I was about to sit on. With my eyes still on the group, I sat on the cushion and right as I rest my back against the back of the couch that same pillow I had just moved fell on to my arm...it was wet. My first thought was "oh one of the boys must have spilled their water". So I just brushed it a side. Not even ten seconds later I realized that the seat I was sitting in was uncomfortably warm...I looked over at the kid refusing to stand up and realized...I was sitting in his PEE!! I was furious! He had soaked the entire cushion with his urine. Of course I must admit that it is kind of funny now, and it would have been hilarious if it had happened to someone else. That is why I have dedicated this post to Kevin Mouritsen....if you want to know why, you will have to ask him.

Bunnies:
Have you ever had one of those moments where you are slapped in the face with how out of shape you are and just how much your body’s abilities have changed with time? Me too. Unfortunately, mine came in the face of a little jet black bunny. While working exactly one week from the "urine" incident, Megan and I were at the treatment center and walking outside in the yard getting ready to clock out for the day when suddenly I noticed the campus pet bunny, Night-Rider (the name should have tipped me off) was out of the animal pen. Megan thought it would be a great idea for me to walk over there, pick him up and put him back in the pen...great idea, for the bunny... I am sure he is still giggling today about the heart attack he almost gave me. After the first approach I realized that it would be easier to recruit some help because I couldn’t even get within 20 feet without the bunny moving away. A couple boys came to help...kind of. As the boys started chase towards the bunny Night-Riders true colors came out, and he darted fearlessly right towards me. I was ready down in my "athletic" stance; you know the one you would use to guard someone in basketball or pretty much any sport. As soon as the bunny got with-in striking distance he jabbed to my left I matched the jab and with the quickest redirection I have ever seen he went back right and I kept going left, down a little hill full of shredded bark where I mud stained my brand new shoes and cut up my knees. The bunny was now down the other side of the hill and in to a little creek bed that went underneath a fence. I was humiliated, but I had to catch him. I jumped up, ran down the hill in to the creek, and under the fence and luckily the bunny was self destructing trying to decide which side of the tree in front of him to take as his next move. As soon as I got there he went left and I went right, around the tree now my last hope was to dive........and I got him! It took me about ten minutes to recover my breath fully after this escapade.

Have You Ever Heard a Song That Made You Cry?

Well this song did just that!  Right off the bat, it made me think of my marriage, which led to me being overwhelmed with gratefullness for my amazing husband.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqIWFyHR-KA

 I was actually surprised I hadn't heard this song before now because it's by Tim Mcgraw and I love Tim Mcgraw.  Check it out, it's great!

Change

Lately our life has felt a bit tedious and we are ready to make some changes.  We aren't exactly sure what changes we want to make but we know we have alot of options.  Here are some of the options we are considering. 

1. Buy a house and stay going to the U of U
2. Just me move to Cedar City and tranfer to SUU and Andrew would stay up here and keep his wellsfargo job.  (This would be a toughy because we really don't want to be away from eachother)
3. Both of us move to Cedar
4. Have a baby... Ok we're not really considering that, but it is an option

The top 3 are things that we are actually considering.  I think we are just ready to have our own place where we can work in the yard, garden, paint how we want, have a puppy.  I don't know about Andrew, but personally I'm just tired of having so many restrictions with where we are at currently.  Don't get me wrong, it's been a huge blessing to be able to live here.  I mean we have an affordable, 3 bedroom home that is fairly  new, but it feels like it's time to move forward.  Speaking of our home, I never did post pictures for my Nebraska family to see our place so I think I will do that in this post as well.  Anyway, I had just to vent a little but about how I'm ready for a change.