SO THIS IS MY LIFE.

Informative post about stuff that seems to be going on in my life at this point in time that others feel the need to know about.

2011-09-18T18:48:00.001-07:00

So, I have been given crap by several because I don't blog anything, but that is because I usually don't have anything important going on in my life to blog about so its not really my fault. However, I recently had something that is a little exciting happen so I will post about it. I'm getting married. I know that this will come as a shock to some and others will mutter and/or shout its about freaking time! So anyway here are the details that are relevant at this time. I am marrying Tom Tanner, he is from Rexburg and he owns Premier Rental Properties. We have been dating for a little over two years and we are getting married Nov. 19th, 2011 in the Rexburg Temple. So, there you have it an update on my life. I will also include a picture so that I don't get yelled at for not having one as those who have not met Tom will likely want to know what he looks like.

I'm officially Graduated!!

2010-05-08T22:31:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm officially graduated. I'll get on an actually blog about it later cause its late and I have to get up early for work. For now here is the proof. Check out the shoes!!!!

Catching Up.......Again

2009-12-15T16:23:00.000-08:00

So I don't know what to tell you guys, but someone really really sucks at keeping this blog updated. At this point I figure no one really looks at it anymore, cause I mean really 2 posts in a year is pretty sad. But I will give you a little update while I have some time. Since June, which is the last time I actually posted something, I really haven't done that much so this will be another short post, but I promise to try and find some time to blog about my cruise. I did finish another semester of school, but I find that I am totally getting lazier about doing my schoolwork but I did pass this semester and I only have one left. It is crazy to think that in 5 months I will be done with school forever. I did make a couple of trips to California during this time, which was awesome! In June Paul, Mandy, Tom, and I helped Mark and Maegan move to California. We packed up a U-haul truck and drove all the way to Cali, fortunately we did it in two days so I didn't have to kill myself due to being in the car that long. We then spent a couple of days helping them unpack their house and then we drove home, this time we did it in one straight shot driving all night which totally sucked. I was pretty bummed that they moved cause I am really going to miss Ethan, Abby, and Whitney, but on the upside it gives me an excuse to visit Cali on a regular basis. I also went to Cali in October for 4 days so I could be there for Abby's birthday, it was super fun. We went to Knott's Berry Farm and I got to spend 4 whole days just hanging out and not worrying about school or work, it was super nice. What else did I do this Summer? Oh yea, we had our family reunion which I was in charge of and I am soooooooo glad that I don't have to be in charge again for another 6 years. Anyway we stayed in some condos at a resort in Ogden Canyon which actually ended up being pretty fun. So yea, other than that fun stuff, I am still working for my parents and working at the fire department and those two things in combination with school and sleep actually takes up most of my time. What little time I have left is usually spent with Tom so I actually stay pretty busy most of the time. So that in a nutshell has been the past 6 months of my life. I know, super exciting over here and I know you are all so glad you just wasted 5 minutes reading this. Until next time. (Which could very well be another 6 months so don't hold your breath!)

Been a While

2009-06-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

Wow, so it has been a long time since I posted anything and a lot has happened. Well not really, but I am going to tell myself that so I feel better. Since my last post I have finished my first year of school and an currently enjoying a 4 month break from school. I'm not sure how I feel about going back, but I still have two whole months before I have to worry about it. I went on a week long cruise, which I will blog about and post picture about later when I have time to write about everything. I now have a new niece curtosy of Paul and Mandy and as of today I have a new nephew curtosy of Steve and Kelly. I am back to working with a full case load of clients again and it has been really hard to get back into the swing of working this many hours again. It ALMOST makes me miss going to class and doing homework, almost. So really aside from my cruise there really hasn't been much exciting going on and I will post about those later when I have a free night, I haven't had many of those lately but I'm sure eventually I will find one and I will get some better updates on here.

Whits is 1 today!

2009-01-30T20:32:00.001-08:00

Whitney turned the big one today! She is so fun, and I love that she is so determined and independent. She gets into everything! When I babysit I feel like I spend all my time following her around and putting everything back where it goes. She loves her big brother and sister so much, I love it when she just latches on and gives them hugs, hence the picture. Happy Birthday Whits!

Play Time!

2008-12-22T19:07:00.000-08:00

So, on the day I moved into my house Kaleb came over and for the first time in his life, all of my fire trucks were down where he could reach and play with them, because I have always kept them up on the shelves. He was in heaven! Raygon tells me that since I moved in he asks her everyday if I am home and if he can come over and play with my firetrucks. I told him could come over when I am home and play, but the problem was that I was gone a lot. So finally I had a free afternoon because of a cancellation at work and I knew Raygon was getting ready for Holden's birthday party and for her younger brother Tanner and his wife to arrive so I called up and asked if Kaleb and Holden could come play. We had tons of fun. It will be more fun when I baby proof my house and don't have to spend all my time watching Holden to make sure he doesn't take I dive down my stairs. :)

They had a great time! Kaleb was pretty sad that he had to put the trucks away and go home for Holden's party.

New House

2008-12-22T18:48:00.001-08:00

I moved into my house in the middle of school. That was fun. If you ever want to stress yourself to the point that all you want to do is sit in a corner while rocking and crying this is how you do it. I finally was able to get renters for my townhouse so I proceeded to plan to move into my house, but where would I find the time. I packed my house up in two days, amidst working my full time hours, covering shifts at the station, and getting all my homework done. Then it took TWO trips with the trailer, and mind you this was not a small trailer, to get all my stuff to the new house. Then I had to put everything away. So not fun. Lucky for me I have an awesome family. Maegan came and helped me finish packing the night before the move. Then while I was going back and forth with the boys telling them where to put things, My mom, Maegan, and Mandy cleaned my townhouse. Then my mom came over to my new house and while I put things away and figured out where the things I needed were she cleaned my room and bathroom in my new house so I wouldn't have to worry about it. I really wish I had thought to take more pictures because my family is awesome. My dad and my brothers (Andy, Mark, and Paul) moved all my heavy stuff in the house and willingly moved it to wherever I asked. My family is awesome. Megs took these pics the night she came over to help me pack because she thought I would want to remember my house.

This is me in my front room/dining room. Notice that it is almost the end of October and I am still wearing shorts and a T-shirt. Also the sweet black brace on my ankle. I had to wear that thing for 4 months after I got off the crutches and out of the boot. Pretty crappy and annoying.This is me packing up the last of my bedroom. I left the bed up, so I could get a couple of hours of sleep. :)

This is me in from of my townhouse my last night there. It was getting dark so this is the best picture we could get.

Catch Up Time

2008-12-22T18:17:00.000-08:00

Well there really isn't a lot to catch up on, sadly my life now consists of school, work, homework, paperwork, and on occasion sleep. I have been spending the half the week in Logan at school, learning how to be a really good Social Worker, and then I spend the other half of the week here in Rexburg practicing being a good Social Worker. I have been given new responsibilities at work, that I actually really enjoy even though I wasn't sure I would. I also still occasionally find time to run on the ambulance, which I have been missing. It's nice to be on break because that means I can cover more shifts and get my fix before I start classes again. When I am in Utah I stay with my brother Jared and his family. My sister in law Becca and I have had tons of fun on my off day. I try to spend most of Tuesday, when I don't have class, doing homework or paperwork, but more often then not you will find Becca and I out shopping. Many of you know that shopping is not my favorite things, I don't love it, but it is tons of fun with Becca. Our new favorite place is DI. We go every Tuesday and look for good books because her kids love to read and I have been trying to find books that we can use in our daytreatment program to help kids learn and understand the concepts we teach. I love being able to spend so much time with Morgan, Cade, and Kali as I have missed them a ton since they moved to Logan. Right now I get the best of both worlds. I get to spend time every week with ALL of my nieces and nephews which is really awesome. So moving on to how school is going. I finished my first semester of Grad school with a 4.o0 which is amazing, I really think that the teachers just want our grades to look good since we are the first MSW Group. Oh well, I am willing to accept it. :) I am now on my break and have had about 2 weeks off and go back on January 5th. So that is pretty much the update on my last 4 months and to finish here is a funny story from school. I had to get up and do a presentation for my Statistics class and the teacher tells us we have to wear business dress. I know what business dress is, and I don't own it. So I ask her what I should wear and she gets this look on her face like I cannot believe that you don't own any business casual clothes. Don't worry, in time she will come to understand me well enough to understand why I don't own business casual. Anyway back to the story. So I say I have this denim skirt that I wear to church sometimes when I am not working and get to wear pants. Again another one of those weird, who the heck are you looks. So she agrees to let me wear my denim skirt and a "nice" shirt. So the next week I am kinda having a bad week and running late to leave for Utah I through my stuff in the car and leave. When I get to Utah I find that I did not bring any nice shoes to wear with my skirt so all I have are my tennis shoes, but I figured I could swing that. So the class I have to give the presentation for is my last class of the day, and anyone who knows me, knows I am not wearing a skirt ALL day. So I through my "dress" clothes in my backpack and off I go to class. When it is time for stats to start I go into the bathroom to change only to realize that I didn't bring my white T-shirt to wear under my "nice" button up shirt, which I always wear open. So I left on the shirt I was wearing, a grey shirt with NC Tarheels written in blue across the chest. So I put on my denim skirt, T-shirt, green button up shirt, and tennis shoes and go into class. When it is my turn to do my presentation everyone is rolling with laughter about my "business casual" outfit. To make it better, I also was carrying my folded up pants in one hand, because I am not sitting in a dress for the next 2 hours until class gets out. So I give my presentation and of course I cannot resist the sarcastic remarks which keeps the class laughing so hard that I had difficulties at times talking because they were making me laugh. Anyway, when I finish my presentation I walk over to the teacher to get my slip of paper with my grade on it and promptly walk out the door to go change into my pants. I don't think anyone actually thought I would leave class to change because they all immediately began laughing and hooting as soon as I walked out the door. But don't you worry, I looked so good in my business casual that I got full points for my presentation. :)

Candy Making

2008-12-22T18:00:00.000-08:00

I know what you all are thinking, Jess doesn't cook. This is true, but candy making does not involve cooking so I can do this. My sister in law Mandy is awesome at making candies and taught us all how to do it this year, so my last day in Logan before my Christmas break my sister in law Becca and I decided to make some candies. We made Peanut Butter cups, Carmels, Peppermint Bark, and crispie rice things. We figured it would take us a couple of hours and we were right! It took us like 9 1/2 hours, that's a couple right? We made candy from about 1:00 in the afternoon until 10:30 at night. After spending all that time in the kitchen Becca and I got a little loopy and well the pictures kinda tell it all.

What could be so funny you might ask.

This peanut butter cup did not set right and looked like the victim of a tragic accident and we thought it was absolutely hilarious.

Then Becca had to go and smash one of our peanut butter balls which of course was even more funny. Why you might ask? I don't really know, I wish I did. I think it was a combination of lack of sleep and way too much sugar.

But in the end we did come out with some pretty good results, if I do say so myself.

Kali Ann turns 4

2008-12-13T22:04:00.000-08:00

I know another birthday post, but this already a week late and I will hopefully have some spare time when we hit the holidays to catch up on the last 4 months of my life. Meanwhile, my niece Kali turned 4 last Saturday. Kali is so much fun. I now get to spend time with her three days a week and I love it. My absolute favorite part of the day is anytime I come home because she always is so happy and excited to see me and will run over to give me a big hug. She totally loves horses, but as of yet has not ridden one. I am working on that. :) She also loves to sing and even though she doesn't get all the words right, although she may be getting them right and we just can't understand her, she always gets the tune right so it is so much fun to listen to her sing. Happy Birthday Kali!

Let's talk about me.

2008-11-12T14:58:00.000-08:00

Since my last several posts have been birthday wishes for my nieces and nephews I decided that I needed to write a little about me and what is going on with me. School. That's it mostly. I am 4 weeks away from being done with my first semester of grad school, which is really nice. I moved into my new house a couple of weeks ago, I will post pictures later (when I take some). Let's see what else. I am going to the midnight showing of Twighlight on the 20th, yes I am making time in my busy schedule for that. K well that's about it. I will try to do a full catch up in December when I have my month off from school.

Baby Holden is 1 today!

2008-11-12T14:26:00.000-08:00

Holden turns 1 today. He is an amazingly happy little kid. He smiles most of the time that I see him and is so happy. I still remember the day he was born, cause I got to go up to the hospital and meet him just a short while after he was born. He didn't have a name for a long time so I called him little John because they knew that John was going to be his middle name. And now we call him baby Holden. He is an amazingly resilient little kid, he spent a couple of weeks in the NICU because he was born early but he bounced back and is doing awesome now. I love hanging out with Holden cause that smile he gives you makes you just feel like the most special person in the world to him. Love ya Holden.

P.S. I totally stole this picture from Raygon's blog. Thanks Rayg!

Morgan Ann turns 9

2008-11-05T21:57:00.001-08:00

My niece Morgan turned 9 on Saturday and of course I am late on this post, tends to happen these days. Morgan is my oldest niece, and even though Ann is her middle name I have always called her Morgan Ann or Little Ann. Morgan is absolutely amazing. She is very smart and does really well in school. She loves to read and has already read many of the Harry Potter books, book 3 is her favorite, and reads for an hour or more everynight, not because she has to but because she wants to. Morgan is so helpful with her siblings and also with the other cousins when we are all together, she is always willing to help out. She is so fun to be around and is growing up so fast. Happy Birthday Morgan Ann, I love you tons.

Sassy is 3 going on 16

2008-10-25T00:07:00.000-07:00

My niece Abby turned three today, well technically yesterday but this is the first chance I have had to sit down and type this up. Abby is such a doll and I love hanging out with her. Abby is such a funny little girl. I call her sassy because she knows what she wants and thinks and isn't afraid to tell you about it. We have a great time when I babysit and I love spending time with her. Abby is huge into baby dolls and has been for a long time, it is so fun to watch her totally mother one of her babies. Abby is a great big sister and helps out with her little sister whenever she can. Happy Birthday Sassypants, I love you!

Lazy Jess

2008-09-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

So I have a couple of minutes so I want to write a quick story. I have been staying at my brother Jared's house when I am in Utah for school. I have taken over their guest room downstairs and spend most of my time in it when I am here either doing homework or doing paperwork for the office. So today after spending most of the day in my room I came up for food and as I was sitting there talking to Becca my nephew Cade who is 7 came up to me and said "Jess how come you are always so lazy when you are here." I totally did not know how to respond so I laughed. Becca looked like she wanted to kill Cade. I guess from a 7 year old's point of view if you spend all your time in your room with the door closed you must be sleeping or laying around being lazy. HAHA! I guess I should work on not being so entirely anti-social while I am here.

The Slacker

2008-09-13T20:27:00.001-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. This is just a quick message to let you know that I started Grad School about 4 weeks ago and since then I have been running like crazy. I don't have much time for anything but work and homework. Hopefully I will be able to get the balance thing down and have some time to catch up on all the fun things that I did before school started.

Cademan is now 7

2008-08-24T11:20:00.000-07:00

So my nephew Cade turned 7 on Tuesday and I totally got caught up and forgot to post this so here it is. Cade is one of the coolest kids I know. He can always make me laugh. He loves playing X-Box and is so good at it that I can't play with him cause he spends the whole time saying things like "Uh, Jess you need to come over here where my guy is." And "Just follow me and I will tell you what to do." It's funny cause I totally suck. Cade is super smart and started second grade this year. He is an awesome reader and gets better every day. I love hanging out with Cade and spending time with him and now I get to see him every week for three days which is great because since they moved to Utah I was only getting to see him every few months. Happy Birthday Bubba!

Trip to Coeur D'Alene

2008-07-25T15:30:00.000-07:00

This may be boring as there are no pictures so feel free to skip it if you like, I promise I won't get offended. So yesterday I had to go to Coeur D'Alene for a meeting so I got up at 3:45 in the morning so I could get ready and get my house cleaned before I left. I got to the airport at about 5:00 for my 6:00 am flight. I find that if I have to travel it is really kind of fun to not have to pack a suitcase cause that whole checking in and waiting for baggage thing is annoying. Anyway since I didn't have any luggage cause I was only staying for the day I was able to head right over to security. I still have to wear an ankle brace to support my ankle so I was a little worried that I would set off the alarm, but I didn't I was pretty happy about that. Oh I forgot the best part of this whole early morning flight thing was that Mom and Dad had to go to meeting too so they were there with me and I had someone to harass. :) Anyway so I flew to Boise, which wasn't bad because I got to switch seats and not have anyone sitting by me. I had a two hour layover in Boise before flying to Spokane so Mom, Dad, and I went over and found seats to chill in. I was having a great morning, because I had made it through my whole flight without getting sick, wich for me is good because I get motion sickness really easy, or so I thought. As we got over to where we were going to sit I suddenly did not feel well at all and had to go buy a coke to settle my stomach. Mom immediatly settled into reading her book and Dad and I joked around before he took a nap. I spent the time playing around on the internet for a while, yea for free wi-fi, and then I also pulled out my book and read. The fun part was that we were sitting by the elevator so they kept bringing people past in wheelchairs and this one person was rolled by with a big bag on their laps and dad leans over and asks "Why is it that everytime you see someone being pushed in a wheelchair do they have a big bag on their laps." We laughed and then everytime anyone else in a wheelchair went past dad muttered about bags under his breath. Then as we continued to sit there this guy who worked for the airport walked past and dad says to me "uh-oh here comes the quax guy." I look up from my book to see this guy walking past with a big QX on the back of his vest. Then Dad says to me "Do you know what he does?" So curious as I was I said yea and dad says "He quax around the airport." I of course laugh for a while and then had to tell mom the whole story when she got back from the bathroom. Anyway after the fun layover we finally get on our plane to Spokane. Nothing real fun on that ride cause it was actually overbooked. Mom and Dad and I did talk about missing our meetings and taking the ticket that you can use to go anywhere and going to Hawaii instead, but then decided that we should go to the meetings. When we landed in Spokane we got Mom and Dad's bags and then went to get our rental cars. The line for my car was way long while there was no one at the place Dad got his car so they got theirs and then just waited for me. I finally got the keys to my sweet ride for the day, THE SILVER BULLET aka the silver PT Cruiser. So we go out to get our cars and the car parked next to mine is so close that I can't get in the driver seat and so I wait patiently for the people sitting in that car to pull out and I wait and wait and then finally I went around to the front of my car and waited so they could see that I was waiting on them and they finally pull out. As I get into my car and start to drive over to where Mom and Dad's car was supposed to be parked I see mom waving me over so I head over there and she tells me to just park cause Dad had to go in and get a new car cause their stunk really bad like cigarette smoke. So I pull into an empty spot next to them. So mom and I are sitting their wating and this old guy comes walking up to the car, he works for the rental agency that Mom and Dad went through, so I roll down my window and he tells me that the car I am in is not one of their cars so I start to explain. I say to him that "I am waiting for my parents because they rented the car next to me but needed a different one because there is something wrong with that one." Halfway through my explaination this guy turns around and walks away. I turned to mom and we both just look at each other with that WHAT THE look and then we chuckled about it. Shortly therafter Dad shows up with their new car, which still smells like cigarette smoke, just not as bad. So about an hour after landing we are finally able to leave. But since we have several hours before my meeting starts and Mom and Dad can check into their hotel we decide to go the Post Falls Outlets. Sweet idea right? Wrong. About 3/4 of the stores were empty and the ones that were open weren't that impressive, but Mom and I did get some new shoes so it worked out. So since there wasn't really anything else to do we decided to drive around Coeur D'Alene and since driving two cars around was silly we went to where my meeting was and dropped my car off then we went and Mom and Dad showed me Lake Coeur D'Alene which is huge and really cool. Then I went to my meeting which took almost 4 hours and then I went to Post Falls to talk to Mom and Dad before heading back to the Airport to catch my 6:25 flight to Boise. I was supposed to get into Boise with about 30 minutes to spare to catch my flight to Idaho Falls so I was really worried that we would be late and I would miss my flight but fortunately for me my flight to Idaho Falls was running about 15 minutes late. So I got to Idaho Falls at about 10:00 and then drove home with the A/C cranked and the Radio blaring to keep me awake.

Tagged

2008-07-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

3 Joys
1. Riding in an Ambulance on my way to a call. There is nothing in the world that I have come across yet that has that same adrenaline rush. It never ceases to amaze me how revved up I get when I get to go out and help people when they are most in need of some help.

2. My Nieces and Nephews. I would give most anything to spend time with my nieces and nephews, especially work. There is nothing like hearing the joy in a kids voice when they yell you're name cause they are so excited just to see you.

3. Reading. I love just sitting around and getting totally immersed in a good book. It doesn't happen much, but I do absolutely love it.

3 Fears
1. That what I have in life now is all I am going to have.

2. That a member of my family will be hurt really bad and that I will show up on scene in the ambulance or the fire truck and not be able to do anything to save them.

3. Spiders. They are totally gross and kinda freak me out a little bit.

3 Goals
1. Do better on my scripture study, church attendence, and temple attendence.

2. Be able to get back to playing basketball by the end of the year. I haven't been able to play for over 2 1/2 months and I am totally missing it.

3. Stay on top of everything that I have to do in my life like work, housecleaning, and exercising and soon traveling and homework.

3 Current Obsessions
1. The twighlight series. The new book comes out in a little over a week and I have been re-reading the other three books which is bad because it keeps me from doing all the other things I am supposed to be doing.

2. Movies. I love movies and I actually collect them. If I watch a movie and like it I totally buy it, I even buy some that I have never seen because I want to see them. One day I will watch all of the movies that I have.

3. Facebook. I know it is totally sad but I get on facebook first thing in the morning and last thing at night, and several times during the day. I like to be able to keep up with all my friends both current and those from high school.

3 Surprising Facts About Myself
1. I am actually a pretty good cook when I want to be, but I hate the process and avoid it at all costs.

2. I cry at sad movies when no one else is around. Yes many of you will be shocked at this because I never cry when I am around other people.

3. I am very anal about my hair. If it sticks up or doesn't look perfect I get super annoyed.

Now I am going to tag Becca, Kimmy, Shellie, and Jason and Amy (and yes I want answers from both of you.)

Name Meaning

2008-07-17T23:45:00.000-07:00

So I found this on my friend Nicole's blog and found it interesting.

What Jessica Means

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you.

You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries.

You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice.

You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.

You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.

At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong.

You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know.

You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do.

You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing.

You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long.

You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily.

You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind.

A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable.

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection.

You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive.

You have the classic "Type A" personality.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

The Amazing Kaleb is now three!

2008-07-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

Today is my nephew Kaleb's Birthday and he is three. It is so crazy that he is now three because that means that Andy and Raygon have been here almost three years. Kaleb is a hoot, he can make me laugh like no one else can. He is super smart and has basically memorized all of the books in his house. I love reading with him because you read a couple of words and then he can finish the whole rest of the page. He loves to be outside and would probably have loved living in pioneer times so that he could just run around and be outside. He gets to spend the weekend camping and riding the four wheelers for his birthday which are two things he totally loves. Kaleb is such a fun kid and I totally love hanging out with hime. Happy Birthday Kaleb!

Free...kinda

2008-07-15T19:18:00.000-07:00

So I went to the doctor today and I can officially be out of the boot cast for good. I'm not starting physical therapy yet, at least for a few more weeks. The doc says he wants to give it some more time, at least another month. The downside to that is that in a little over a month I start grad school and will not be her in Idaho Monday through Wednesday. Also on the upside I am cleared to run on the ambulance again starting August 1st and I am super excited about that although he did say that he doesn't want me to play basketball for a few more months. I was very dissapointed about that since I was hoping to be able to go play today. :( Oh well I guess that's life, we take what we can get.

Ethan is the big 5

2008-07-07T21:26:00.000-07:00

So I just wanted to give a little shout out to my nephew Ethan who turned 5 today. He is one of the coolest kids I know. He is super smart and always wants to learn. He is an awesome big brother to his two little sisters and is really good about letting Abby play with him. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN, You are a stud!!!!

Surgery Update

2008-07-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted so I will play catch up here for a minute. Quick update on the surgery. I spent two weeks in a hard cast that kept my foot turned at a bit of an angle to make sure that the tendons healed together the way they were supposed to. I spent 5 weeks on crutches totally non weight bearing....okay for those of you who know me well you all know I started cheating after about 4 weeks. :) It's okay though cause when I went into the doctor he asked if I cheated and when I told him I had he just laughed and said that he kind of expected I would. Anyway 2 1/2 weeks ago I got the go ahead to ditch the crutches and just walk in the boot cast that I got after I got the cast off. I struggled for a couple of days learning to walk and not fall on my face, which I only did once by the way. So in another 10 days I should be getting the boot cast off and then I get to start physical therapy. I'm excited to get back to normal, but I'm not so sure how I feel about starting the physical therapy. Here are some sweet pics from my surgery. This one is the cast I wore for two weeks.

And this is the scar on my ankle. It was way cooler than I thought it was going to be. :) I did have a little necrosis at the top, where the skin died but it healed together nicely anyway.

My awesome Family

2008-07-05T14:40:00.001-07:00

So I have to say that my family is totally the best family ever! They are totally awesome and have been so willing to help me out with things since my surgery. My parents totally took care of me for the first week and were very cool about letting me take as much time off work as I needed. They have also been patient with me since I am not yet back to my full hours, but hopefully will be as soon as I can get this boot off my foot. My mom also gave up an entire Saturday to come and help me week my backyard. It hasn't been weeded in like the whole two years that I have lived here because I hate weeding. Anyway we also had to trim the bushes and pull and dig out these weeds that were like two feet tall. She figured it wouldn't take very long but it took like 7 hours. That was with me, my mom, my dad, and these three random college students who took pity on us and came to help. My dad came for a while and then brought back his trailer which we filled almost completely full with all the weeds, branches, and crap that we took out of my backyard which is really small. My brothers Andy and Mark also came over for a little while during this endevour and trimmed the bushes cause I had no clue what I was doing. My little brother Paul and his wife Mandy were awesome about picking me up and taking me places right after my surgery and I was on drugs so driving would have been dangerous. They took me grocery shopping for food and took me to the movies to help entertain me. I'm really glad that they are always around and willing to let me hang out with them. My sister in law Raygon came over one night to help me avert a crisis with my garbage disposal that wouldn't work. I didn't have a key so she brought the one from their house and helped me get my garbage disposal working and then she mowed my lawn cause it had been like almost a month since it had been mowed. And this was at like 8:00 at night when she had been on her way to work cleaning our Partial Care building. She is totally amazing. Here is a picture of her mowing my lawn in the dark, it's kinda hard to see but you get the idea. Look at how long my grass was, it was sad.

Raygon is not the only one to have mowed my lawn since my surgery, Maegan also came over. She was finally able to convince me to accept some help at cleaning my house. I have a hard time letting other people clean my house and so it didn't get cleaned for over a month. Megs was awesome to do it and I totally owe her big time. Here's a picture of Maegan mowing my lawn.

Ethan, Abby, and Whitney came to hang out with me while Maegan cleaned my house. On a side note she wouldn't let me help her clean much, everytime I tried she would have me hold Whitney or play with Ethan and Abby. So here are Ethan and Abby riding scooters on the road by my house, since I live on a dead end street they could play in the road without worrying too much about cars.

After Maegan mowed the lawn we let Ethan and Abby run around in the sprinklers since they were so good.

And since we didn't have swim suits they ran in the sprinklers in their clothes so we had to throw all their clothes in the dryer so I got some of my shorts for the kids to wear until their clothes were dry. I think they were a little too big.

Whitney was such a babe through this whole thing.

So yea my family is awesome and I am totally thankful to them, cause I would not have made it through the past couple of months without them.

Grown up Life!

2008-05-23T11:56:00.000-07:00

So I remember being so excited to move out of my parents house and into my first home. I kept thinking "Man this is great, my own place!" Then the bills that I somehow did not realize would be coming started to come. Still, no big deal I could handle it. Then the decisions what do I make for dinner, how fast of an internet connection do I want, what kind of cable should I get, should I get cable, and on and on. Still, I was excited to be on my own and deal with things like an adult. Lately the decisions seem to just get bigger. I have so many decisions and now so many financial things coming up at once. I have to pay for my surgery, for grad school, continue to pay the mortgage, the car payment, and the bills. Things just seem to get more and more complicated. Sometimes I just wish I had stayed at home, although I am sure that my parents would have kicked me out by now, but that security of living at home and knowing that you did not have to make any of the big decisions or deal with any of the problems was so nice. I've decided that some days it just SUCKS to be a grown up and have to deal with everything that happens.

Surgery

2008-05-15T12:04:00.000-07:00

So I had surgery yesterday on my right leg. I went in to have my meniscus in my knee fixed and to tighten up the ligaments in my ankle, all damage from a car accident I was in 6 months ago. It turns out that my meniscus wasn't torn, but I had some bone spurs type things under my knee cap that were aggrivating the cartilage and causing fluid to build up in my knee. So fortunately after about two weeks I will get the stitches out of my knee and it will be much better. My ankle on the other hand did still have to be fixed and I now have a cast on my ankle for a while. I go in to see the doctor in a week and a half and will then find out what is happening there. But let me tell you about my surgery.
I was told to be there at 930 for my 1000 surgery, so I arrive on time and was taken to my room where I had to put on the fun gown. Any of you who have ever had to put one of these on know what I am talking about, the worst part is that the person who was occupying the other bed in my room was gone to surgery, but her husband was in there. He left for a while, but came back cause he didn't have anywhere else to be. So those who know me know how awkward it was for me to be sitting there with this little thin gown on and nothing else while he was in there room. Anyway so this guy was gone for about an hour and a half and comes back in to tell us that we may be waiting a while, we had already be waiting an hour from when the surgery was supposed to have started. He tells us his wife's surgery was supposed to start at 730 but she didn't go in until almost 930 and it was only supposed to be 45 minutes and she had been in there and hour and half already. So we waited and waited and waited and at about 1:00 they finally came and got me. I got my meds right before I left the room so I actually remember everything from this surgery. I remember going into the operating room moving to the table, joking around with the nurses, and then talking to the anesthesiologist about how annoying verizon wireless customer service was because he was talking to them when he came in. Then I got the meds and was out. I woke up about 3 hours later in recovery and was struggling a bit to wake up, but the lady in the bed next to me made me realize that I needed to get out of there quick cause she was whinning and moaning and just being annoying. I realize that she had just had surgery, but so had I and I was being quiet. Anyway so after about 30 minutes in recovery they took me back to my room where I slept on and off for about 2 hours and then they decided that I needed to eat something so I could take some pain meds although I told them I didn't need any. By this time it was about 630 pm and I was just ready to go home. So I gave in and they brought me some toast. I took about 3 bites of toast and felt like I was going to throw up. I was hot and dizzy and nauseous and couldn't figure out why. Well the nurse said I had to get better before they would release me to go home. So I slept and tried to feel better, but the headache and everything just got worse. They told me this was all probably due to the anesthesia, but I had never had a problem with it before. I finally convinced them all that I felt better and got ready to leave and when I could see I saw that the thermostat was set at 76. Now I hate the heat and tend to get migraines when it gets too hot. My house is set at 60-65 in the Summer and 68 in the Winter so 76 was way too hot for me and apparently that is why I was so sick. Well Mom decided that since I got so sick she didn't want me to stay at my house by myself so she took me to her house, which was a good thing cause I did need a lot of help last night cause moving around on crutches when you are dizzy is not a safe thing. I felt kinda bad cause I couldn't do anything myself so I had to keep asking mom and dad to help. I couldn't even get off the couch without help cause their foot rest things that come up don't go back down and stay put without a lot of force which I just couldn't muster with just one leg, so everytime I needed to go to the bathroom I had to have one of them come in and hold the foot rest down while I got up. I kept them up until almost midnight just getting me settled and getting all of their stuff that they usually do done cause they had to put it all of to help me. So this morning mom dropped me off at my house on her way to work and I am doing pretty well. My headache is finally almost gone and my leg had stopped aching, thank you Hydrocodone. So anyway this is my surgery experience. I am currently heavily medicated so if some of this does not make sense then I am sorry.

Grad School

2008-04-03T18:26:00.000-07:00

Look at me go, two posts in one week. You guys should feel special. I just wanted to post that I got accepted to the Utah State University Master's in Social Work program. Apparently that awesome score I got on my MAT test worked out for me. YEA!!!!! And it will only take me two years of living in Utah half of the week and then living in Idaho half of the week. I will be in Utah Monday morning through Wednesday night going to class and then I will spend Thursday, Friday, and possibly Saturday doing my 15 hours of practicum and trying to make some money working with kids. I will also be working a few shifts at the fire station when I am in town, hopefully, cause those who know me well know that I can not go long without my Fire Station fix.

Friends

2008-03-30T00:58:00.000-07:00

So since I have been getting a lot of hack about not posting recently I will post a little sumthin sumthin here. I recently have been able to find some more people up here Rexburg, since all the ones that I make tend to get married and/or move away....and you all know who you are. Anyway so I have been hanging out a lot with the same three people Ashley, Jess (hereafter called Withers so you don't get confused), and Gary. So Tuesday was Gary's birthday and Ashley, Withers, and I decided to kidnap him and take him out for his birthday but since his family lives around here we didn't want to interfere with their plans, so all sneaky like Ashley and I distract Gary by tackling him and Withers gets his Mom's phone number. So the next day Ashley goes to call his mom and since we didn't know her first name, or her last name cause she just recently got remarried, Ashley was all like "ummmm...is this Gary's mom?" when she answered the phone. It was hilarious. Anyway his mom was all like well we were gonna hang out with him but I will just tell him I am too busy to see him on his birthday and you guys can hang out with him. So anyway we waited until he was off of work and kidnapped him and went to Craigo's to eat where we made sure that they sang to him and embarrased the crap out of him. It was great. Then we came back to my place and hung out and gave him his presents, one of which was a little plastic shotgun. Well for the next like half and hour he ran around my house baricading himself in rooms and shooting at us with his little plastic gun. It was hilarious. Then later we were just hanging out and talking and Ashley and Withers were like hey do you realize that between the two of us we are like 40, and Gary and I looked at each other and were like yea, between the two of us we are 50 thanks for pointing that out. All in all it was fun.

This is Gary with his new gun

This is Ashley and Withers trying to take Gary's gun, can you tell who is winning?

This is Ashley trying out Gary's Gun.

This is Wither's trying to act all tough with the gun.

I also went to Utah this weekend just to get a break from my life and when I came home I gave my friend Cam a ride up here for school. He had called me the week before and was like "can you give me a ride up and bring some of my stuff up?" And I was like heck yes, no problemo. Anyway so I went to pick Cam up this afternoon and he starts loading up my truck and totally filled the whole thing up and we didn't even get all of his stuff in! It was hilarious, but I think the best part was watchin Cam load himself up in my little truck. I drive a Colorado which is a small truck and Cam is like 6'7 so it was hilarious watching him get in and out of my little truck. But riding up here with Cam was awesome cause he tells the funniest stories and he always tells them in such a way that you like totally get sucked in and are just waiting for what is coming next cause half of the time it is so not what you are expecting.

K well I know this is much, but it is 2 a.m. so I am going to go to bed so I can survive through tomorrow.

I got my score!!!!

2008-03-08T23:15:00.000-08:00

So two weeks ago I took my dreaded MAT test for Grad School. I was sooooo nervous. The only thing they told me was that I had to score above the 40th percentile. If I did good, if not...well it might hurt my chances. I was SOOOOOO stressed and anxious about taking this test that I actually put it off for a week and spent the week trying to study. This of course was the week that I was so sick I thought I was dying, but I studied none the less. Anyway I have been waiting for my results as they told me it would be 2-3 weeks. Well I got my test results today and I scored in the dud-da-da-duh 81st percentile. How freaking cool is that!!!!!! I am smarter than 81 percent of people who take this test!!!! Anyway by the time I checked my mail at 1215 a.m. it was too late to call people and tell them but I am so excited that I had to do something so I am writing it on here. So if you read this before I tell you in person or on the phone sorry that I did not call you in the middle of the night!

Twilight

2008-02-26T21:21:00.000-08:00

So Becca started me reading this Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. I know Raygon has read them, but I really wasn't all that interested cause it is about vampires and stuff so I was a little skeptical. Becca assured they were good and talked me into buying the first book in the series. I read it in like a day. It is like 400+ pages, but I could not put it down. I absolutely loved it! I am going to get the other two books tomorrow. So if you have not read these books, I suggest you give them a try! I will even let you borrow my books.

My week as a Mom......well sort of.

2008-02-26T19:56:00.000-08:00

I meant to do this sooner, but I have been a little busy so here goes. I spent a week in Utah babysitting for my brother and sister-in-law. I watched my Nieces Morgan, age 8, and Kali, age 3, and also my nephew Cade, age 6. By the way this is really long so don't start this unless you have some time on your hands. It probably really isn't that interesting either so I won't be offended if you don't read the whole thing. Here's how it went.

I actually got there on Thursday night because I was going to take my Grad School test on Friday morning, but then I wussed out so I just kinda hung out and enjoyed myself on Friday and most of Saturday. I went shopping with Becca, my sister-in-law, on Friday so that she could get all of the things she still needed for her trip to Mexico. Then I played with the kids Friday night until they went to bed and then I watched a movie with Jared and Becca and also my brother Steve and his wife Kelly. It was pretty fun and I was kinda enjoying my relaxation. On Saturday I slept in, the absolute last time I slept in for a week, until 9 when Cade came down to ask if he could play Wii. My brother Paul and his wife Mandy and my parents came down on Saturday so that Paul and Mandy could spend some time with her grandparents who were in town and my parents came down to take Steve out to dinner for his birthday. So we all went out to dinner, my whole family that was there including the kids, Mandy's grandparents, and our friend Brock who lives down in Logan. After dinner Jared and Becca left for Salt Lake so that they could catch their early flight to Mexico on Sunday morning. The rest of us hung out at Jared's house playing cards until we all decided to go to bed. The next morning Kali woke me up at like 7 which is pretty crappy since they don't have church until 11. Everyone else gradually woke up and I was able to get myself and all three kids ready for church on time. Although my dad did have to avert a shoe crisis and was able to help Morgan find her white shoes to match her white dress! We even got to church early! We only stayed for sacrament meeting and then went home. I know we should have stayed the whole time, but I don't know anyone there and trying to find Relief Society and then sitting in there with a whole bunch of ladies telling me how brave I was to come down and babysit for a week did not sound like fun to me. So anyway after church Mom and Dad headed home, Paul and Mandy had left earlier so they could make it back to Rexburg for their 1:30 church, I was finally all alone with the kids and frankly I was a little scared. We hung out just playing around and watching a little tv until bedtime which was 8 even though they didn't have school. After they were in bed I watched one of my movies, and just kinda messed around until about 12:30, which is normally when I go to bed, and then I crashed. Well fun for me Kali woke up at 6:30 the next morning. I was dying! I was definitely not prepared for early mornings with small kids. Fortunately Kali was happy with me turning on her favorite show, Horseland, in my room and giving her a bag of cereal and a cup of milk so that I could go back to sleep for a little bit. But then Morgan woke up at 7 and Cade was up shortly thereafter so I was up and making breakfast. Being President's day the kids did not have school so we hung out and played Wii most of the day. Nothing real cool or exciting. The kids again went to bed at 8 and I was soooooo tired from getting up early that I went to bed at 10 knowing that I had to get up at 7 so that I could get all three kids up and ready for school, Kali goes to preschool. So the next morning I start waking kids up, I had to go in and get Cade up like 4 times cause he just would not get up and get dressed. Morgan got up after about he second time I went downstairs. Kali of course was up when I went in to get her up so she was totally the easiest. So after getting them all dressed, making them all breakfast, and making sure that homework was all done and in backpacks I was ready to try doing hair. I started with Cade figuring he would be the easiest, cause he is a boy, but no after about the 10th time I heard "that's not how mom does it," I finally told him that this is how Jess does it so get used to it. He was kinda okay with that but he did pout a little. Morgan was pretty good she wanted her hair left down so I straightened the parts that needed a little help and that was done, but then there was Kali. Kali has the craziest curly hair that HAS to be done or else it is just all over the place, so here I am with these little tiny hair bands trying to part her hair and put the front into two little cute pony tails on top of her head. Now I have done this a couple of times, but I am not good at it. All I have to say is it's a good thing that Becca wasn't there to see how bad it looked. Sorry Becca. Anyway I got them all ready, Morgan and Cade got to the bus stop on time and I managed to get Kali to preschool on time as well. The morning was going great. I decided to go wander around the stores and see if I could find anything that I liked. By the time I had to leave to go get Kali I still had not found anything that I liked. Oh well, I really don't need anything new anyway. So I picked up Kali and we went to Wendy's for lunch, I didn't feel like cooking and after getting mandarin oranges instead of fries I felt like it was a pretty healthy lunch. :) Morgan and Cade got home at about 4 and after making sure that all homework was done I let them play Wii until 6 which is when we had to leave to go to Cade's program at the school. It was a nice little program and Cade was hilarious to watch. He was in the very back row and he would kind of bob his head to the music, but did not sing much. He did however make a bunch of funny faces including the time he spent about 3 minutes making himself cross-eyed. I was laughing pretty hard. After the program finally got over it was 7:30. I promised Cade that if he behaved I would let him decide what was for dinner and since the kids were supposed to be to bed about 8 we went to McDonald's and grabbed Happy Meals, with apples instead of fries as I was trying to make it somewhat healthy. I figured it would be faster than anything I could make. At this point all of you reading this realize that I pretty much suck as a mom, I mean who lets their kids eat out this much. Anyway I got home and listened to the messages on the answering machine and Jared had called and said that they would try to call around 8 to talk to the kids. So I got the kids to eat fast, and then get their pajama's on and get all ready for bed and then we waited and waited and about 8:30 Jared and Becca finally got through to talk to the kids. So it was close to nine when they finally fell asleep. My throat had begun to hurt that morning and by the time the kids went to bed it was really starting to hurt so I took some medicine and went to bed a little before 10. My throat hurt so bad it kept waking me up every couple of hours so I did not sleep well. And then at about 2:30 in the morning Kali wakes up to go potty and tried to convince me that it was time to get up. I finally got her to go back to sleep about 30 minutes later which I was very grateful for. When I got up at 7 to get the kids up my throat was really bad, I had a horrible headache, and I felt like I was gonna throw up. That last thing could have been because I ate McDonald's the night before though. The kids were really hard to get up and get going on Wednesday after their late night but I finally got Morgan and Cade dressed, fed and hair done. Kali on the other hand was very grumpy and threw a fit every time I tried to get her to do anything. I finally told Kali that she didn't have to go to preschool but that I was going to the doctor, I thought I might have strep throat, and that she would have to go with me. She quickly became compliant and got ready for Preschool. After I dropped off all of the kids I went to InstaCare to see a doctor. I had to wait for like 45 minutes and then my strep test was negative so they tested me for influenza, again it was negative. The doctor said I had what they call "paraflu" which is like the flu but not as bad. So I went and picked up my prescription along with some other needed things like throat lozenges and headache meds and then went and picked Kali up. I fed Kali some Mac and Cheese and then let her watch movies while I went in to bed and crashed cause at this point I was feeling really bad. Morgan and Cade came home at about 1 as they got out of school early. I called them into my room and told them that I was sick and would have to rest a lot and that they would need to be really good. Cade asked if he could read to me so that he could play X-box, which is a rule. So I told him yes, but I kept falling asleep and honestly have no idea if he read the whole story or if it was even right. I then told him and Morgan that they could play and then I slept on and off the rest of the evening. I got up and made them dinner and then went back to bed. I called my mom and told her that I was sick and asked how mom's take care of kids when they are sick like this and she said that they pretty much do what I was doing, rest as much as possible and try to keep the kids in the house. The second part wasn't hard, because it was so cold, but resting was difficult as the kids were fighting and I had to go in and talk to them about it and then Kali was in my room about every ten minutes wanting a new tv show, or something to eat. Thursday I felt even worse, if that is possible, and the kids were home all day because of parent teacher conference. So again the kids played and watched movies all day while I layed in bed and tried to not die. They did really well and I was so proud of them for getting along so well. About 4 Paul and Mandy showed up to help me out, Mom had sent them because I think she feared for the well being of her grandkids. It was soooo nice to have them there cause I could go in my room, shut the door, and sleep for more that 10 minutes at a time. Mandy made the kids a very healthy meal that did not contain Chicken nuggets or Macaroni as that is about all I had been feeling up to making them while I was sick. That night Paul and Mandy took Morgan and Cade to my brother Steve's churchball game just to get them out of the house which was good for the kids. I kept Kali home so she could go to bed because she had Preschool on Friday. I had been gradually getting more and more nauseous all day so I asked Paul to stop and get me some Pepto and some peppermint tea on the way home to see if that would help. And wouldn't you know it I drank some peppermint tea and then puked my guts out. I did feel a little better after that though. My head was pounding pretty bad so I went to bed at about 9:30 and Paul and Mandy put Morgan and Cade to bed. It was nice to not have to do that when I felt so crappy. The next morning I woke up at about 815 so that I could get Kali up and ready to be at preschool at 9. Then I tried to tell myself that I felt good enough to go and take my MAT, Miller Analogies Test, for Grad school as today was the day I had rescheduled it for. I didn't think I was going to be able to make it but fortunately I have two amazing brothers who were willing to give me a blessing. I know without a doubt that the only way I made it through being able go up there and take that test is because of that blessing. After the blessing I got dressed and then took Kali to preschool, I had Mandy drive so that she could pick Kali up after preschool. I was pretty dizzy and shaky as I had not eaten for about 3 days so I had Paul drive me up to my test. I was a little nervous as I don't do well on tests when I am around a bunch of other people, but fortunately I was the only one taking the test that morning. The guy giving the test was giving me the instructions and then he was like can I give you some advice? And of course I was like HECK YES!!!! He told me that a lot of people don't finish this test, it is 120 questions in 60 minutes, so when I come in and tell you that you have 5 minutes left just start filling in bubbles on all the questions you haven't got to yet so that you have at least a chance of getting them right. This freaked me out a little. So I started my test and went through answering only the ones that I knew or was fairly sure that I knew and then I went back through and spent time trying to figure out the other ones. When he came in to tell me I had 5 minutes left, I only had 4 questions left to finish. So either I did really well and I am smart, or I suck really bad and bombed it, but I won't know for 2-3 weeks. So after my test my friend Brock picked me up and gave a lift home and then we all ate lunch that, thankfully, Mandy had made cause at this point I was pretty drained. I didn't dare try to eat yet as I was still not feeling totally well. We then decided to run to the pet store to get some stuff for Paul and Mandy's new puppy Mack that they had brought with them. Funny story: Jared and Becca promised to bring the kids souvenirs from Mexico so Morgan and Cade are in the back seat talking about this and Morgan says "What are souvenirs?" to which Cade replies "They're Mexican." like Morgan was a complete idiot. We all laughed pretty hard about that. When we got back I was completely wasted so I went to my room to try to sleep. Kali came in and wanted to watch horseland so I turned it on and went to sleep. I woke up as Paul and Mandy were getting the kids ready to take them bowling. They had a great time. The rest of the evening wasn't real spectacular, Steve and Kelly came over and hung out with us for a while and then we all went to bed. Saturday I felt much better and was able to get up and get a bunch of stuff done including cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry and getting all of my stuff packed up as Jared and Becca would be home that night. The kids played and watched tv, but Paul minimized X-box time which Cade had loved having unlimited time while I was sick so Cade just wandered around looking all depressed and claiming that there was nothing to do. We fed the kids dinner and then just waited for Jared and Becca to get home as we had decided to go out to dinner. Jared and Becca finally got home and gave the kids all of their souvenirs and I gave a quick update about what had been going on and then Paul, Mandy, and I left. We met up with Steve and Kelly and went to dinner at my favorite place ever Olive Garden. Brock was there and he was our server so that was pretty fun. After we ate we all went to Steve and Kel's and watched a movie. I finally got home at about 1230 and I was totally exhausted so I went to bed. Well that is my week. This is pretty long so I give props to anyone who makes it to the end.

Here are some Pics:

This is the kids playing in the warm sheets that had just been washed.

This is Morgan and Cade playing Wii. They had a great time and were upset everytime I told them they had to take a break and do something else.

This is Morgan and Cade having a sleep-over in Cade's room. They get to stay up late and hang out together on Friday nights. I tucked them in really tight at their request and then they looked like burrito's so I called them my little burrito babies. They thought it was hilarious.

This is Cade at his program, it was on America and symbols of freedom and Patriotism. Cade's class talked about the Eagle.

Mom's are Awesome!

2008-02-20T16:28:00.000-08:00

So I just wanted to write and tell all you mom's out there how amazing I think you are. I have been babysitting my nieces Morgan and Kali and my nephew Cade this week and IT IS TOUGH. On top of that I am now sick with a really bad sore throat and a migraine, but I still have to take care of the kids. I don't know how you guys do it. You are my hero's!!!!

TAG

2008-02-18T08:21:00.000-08:00

My sister-in-law Raygon, tagged me on her blog. So here goes nothin'!Why is my spell check not working? Sorry for the errors.

10 years ago I was.....a sophmore in High School. I had just gotten my lisence and was driving all over in my sweet red 88 Buick Park Ave. I was also working after school for my parents doing secretary work. Not very exciting.

5 things on my to-do list:1. Study for my MAT test. 2. Write my Personal Statement for application for Grad School. 3. REST!!!! 4. Entertain Morgan, Cade, and Kali with something other than the Wii. 5. Go to the store and buy Kali some cold Medicine and them hope I don's get a cold too.

Things I would do with a billion dollars: Well first off I would pay off all of my debts. Then I would build the house of my dreams. And then put enough in savings for me to live on while I did everything I could to help others. Then I would give my family all the money they need, I would also give money to my best friend Kimmy who has always been like a sister to me. Then I would donate the rest of the money to kids hospitals and research funds to help come up with cures for diseases.

Things most people dont know about me: 1. I collect a lot of things, toy fire trucks and ambulances, shotglasses, porcelin dolls, and movies. 2. I have almost 600 DVD's. 3. Like my sister-in-law Raygon I hate to fold laundry and I will leave it in the baskets or in the dryer for days. 4. I am pretty laid back and figure that most things don't matter so when people ask me what I want to do or eat I will say that I don't care cause I really don't not because I am trying to get out of making a decision or because I want others to like me. 5. I really don't mind cooking even though I complain about it all the time. I really hate cooking for just myself and so I usually don't do it.

Those are the things I am putting out there for the TAG. Now I am tagging Lisa and Heather. Have fun!

I Wussed Out

2008-02-15T22:46:00.000-08:00

So I was supposed to go and take my MAT test for Grad school this morning and I totally wussed out. Is that even a word? Oh well I am still a big ole wuss. I didn't think that I was ready and figured I would bomb it so I rescheduled it for this coming Friday to give me more time to study. Of course all of this heavy duty studying is going to happen while I am babysitting 3 kids for a week. Wish me luck!

Doing Better

2008-02-12T20:15:00.000-08:00

So Steve called me this afternoon to talk and as we were talking he mentioned that when he was looking at the pics on my blog it looked like I was getting skinnier. Now I see myself everyday so I really hadn't noticed that much of a difference, so I went in search of some pictures to see if what he said was true. Now anyone who knows me well knows that I hate to be in pictures and about the only ones that you will find of me also have a niece or a nephew in them but here is a comparison. I think I do actually look a little skinnier, but you decide for yourself.

This is me in April of '07

This is me January of '08

Temple

2008-02-11T18:18:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was the dedication of the Rexburg Temple. I watched Andy and Raygon's boys in the morning while the went to their session. I had a blast, and I think Kaleb did too. Holden probably did, but he hid it well by sleeping most of the time. Kaleb and I played with his little people city most of the time, but we did find time to run around as I pulled him in his little wagon. It was really fun. My session was at 4:30 and I got to be in the Temple which was really fun. I went up at 3:00 with my friends Kimber and Troy and their son Daylen because Troy, who is a city cop, was working security and had to be there early. So we got up there and went to where Troy was stationed which was on the main level just outside the locker rooms. So we were sitting there chillin and then about 4:00 Troy comes over to tell Kimber and I that a lady passed out in the stairwell up by the fourth floor and they needed a medical crew. So Kimber, who is a Paramedic, and I hurried up there to see what the problem was. The lady was okay, apparently this happens to her every once and a while, but we talked to her and worked with her for about 15 minutes. We called the ambulance that was on stand-by to come up so that we could give her some oxygen and it took them some time to get up there as the usher's would not let them in because they did not have tickets. One of the security guys finally had to just tell them to let them in after they showed their recommends. So we got the lady feeling better and went back to our seats. We were sitting there talking about how funny it was that we got a call when Elder Nelson, Elder Bednar, and the Temple Presidency walked past us on their way up to the Celestial room. Our session was really good, Elder Nelson called on several people to come up and give impromptu talks and it went for like an hour and a half which is longer then any of the other ones went. When the session was over we had to wait for Troy who had to wait for all of the people to leave and as we were standing there waiting Elder Nelson, Elder Bednar, and the Temple Presidency came back through. Elder Nelson stopped and talked to us for a minute and shook hands with Kimber's son Daylen. It was a neat experience. That is the closest I have ever been to an Apostle. After everyone finally cleared out we were able to leave, but we ended up being up there for a total of about 3 hours which was very tiring.

TIRED!!!

2008-02-08T21:40:00.000-08:00

So I have been trying to figure out why I am sooooooo tired and I have come up with two answers. One is that today after a week of not feeling well, having a bit of a hard time breathing, and some pain in my lungs I finally went to the doctor, turns out that I have laryngotracheobronchitis or in other words Adult Croup. Fun Huh? Nothing like having constant pain in your lungs and then when you cough it feels like someone is ripping them out. I now feel totally bad for any kid who gets croup, although they say that adult croup is much worse. So I figured that cannot be the only thing making me tired and then I realized that besides my regular work schedule of about 60 hours I have worked a 6-12 hour shift at the fire department everyday for almost a week. From last Saturday to today the only day that I didn't put in at least 6 hours was Sunday. Now for my family who is reading this, especially my mom, I know that it is my own dang fault for working so much, but that doesn't change the fact that I am tired. So it is off to bed I go, since I am on call tonight and may end up having to go on calls in the middle of the night. :)

Busy Busy

2008-02-06T21:27:00.000-08:00

Just thought that I would drop a quick note about what has been going on lately. Things have been very busy at the fire dept. Monday night I responded to a three vehicle accident that required 3 ambulances. We transported 10 people to the hospital, 6 of those were kids under the age of 5. I got on scene just behind the second ambulance and was immediately assigned to an ambulance and put in charge of 3 screaming children while the guys on the fire trucks extricated their mom from her car. I had a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and a 5 week old. the four year old came in attached to a 17 year old who had witnessed the wreck and got out to help so that was good. He was able to finally calm the 4 year old down and distract him while I did my assessment. The 5 week old was screaming when she came into the ambulance but with a little rocking settled down and went to sleep. The 2 year old was another matter. She screamed most of the time. I finally got her to calm down after about 20 minutes and then her dad shows up and comes into the ambulance so she immediately starts screaming again but stops as soon as dad holds her. Then he decides that he needs to be out with his wife so he hands the 2 year old back to me which of course starts the screaming again. It took a while to get her to calm down again and once I did, Dad came back in and was in the ambulance for about 2 minutes and then he left again, so of course we start the process all over again. He did this like 3 times. I was about ready to hurt him. Anyway all the kids in the accidents were fine a few bumps and bruises but all were fine. Thank Goodness for CAR SEATS! Anyway, the mom was pretty bad off, but we took them all to the hospital and they are taking good care of her.
While we were on that call they dispatched another ambulance to an accident on Highway 20 which ended up being fatal. I was kinda glad I didn't go on that one, those ones are the hardest.
We finally cleared from our accidents and then got dispatched to a girl who got hurt sledding up on campus. That call had barely gotten over when we were dispatched to another call accident, this time a roll-over, on highway 20. That one got done and then we had to take the mother from our first car accident down to EIRMC so she could got specialized care for her injuries. So by the time we were done with calls it was 1:30 am and I was really tired.

Then on Tuesday I worked all day at my PSR job and then went to the station to use the excercise room to work out for an hour. When I finished I went in the station to write my reports on the three kids from the car accident when we got toned out to a car accident. Since I was there I ran out and got my turn outs and responded in the Fire Truck! I was excited cause I don't get to go out on the trucks much. So we get on scene and they assigned me to get in the car and work on the patient that was still trapped in the car. So much for being on the fire truck I still end up doing ambulance stuff. This car had missed a corner and had buried the front end into a snow drift about 3 feet and we couldn't get the driver out. So the other guys on the truck with me had the idea to hook the car up to the winch on the front of the truck and just pull the car out. So we did, and the lady screamed bloody murder everytime the car moved even a little bit, which was great as I was sitting right next to her. I will give it to her, that she did say she was in a lot of pain and the car was being jerked. Anyway so they start pulling it out and can only pull it little ways and then it won't move anymore. They get to looking around and realize that she had hit a tree and the car was stuck on the stump. So we had to dig out three feet of snow around the back of the car to the drivers side so we could open the door and get her out. After we were done I was driving the chase, our pickup truck that follows the ambulances to calls, back to the station and the second out ambulance gets toned out. Well I knew that we had the firefighter that was supposed to go on that call still out in the fire truck so I asked if they had enough people or if they needed me to respond with them. They requested that I respond with them so they picked me up by Porter Park and off we went. So here I am on this call with my Turn-Outs on. Turn outs are the really nice gear that we wear in fires so that we don't burn to death and they are great......on fires. They kinda are big and bulky and very annoying on ambulance calls. So here I was looking all sweet in my turn out bottoms and just a t-shirt, cause I can't move very well in my jacket, and I go on this other call. I wasn't even covering a shift and I ended up working for 3 hours. I got home at about 1130 and had to take a shower cause I was all sweating from working out and going on calls so I got to bed kinda late and then had to get up early for a meeting this morning. And then after work today I had to go to training at the fire station and I got home at about 103o again. I am also on call tonight so we'll see how much sleep I get tonight. Well this is longer that I had planned and it is late so I am going to bed.

My new Niece!

2008-01-31T21:00:00.000-08:00

So Wednesday morning I woke up really early (5 a.m.) so that I could be at Mark and Maegan's to watch Ethan and Abby while Megs went to have my new niece. I had the greatest time! Since it was only 6 when I got there and the kids were still sleeping I went upstairs and crashed in Mark and Megs room until they woke up. I laid there for like 45 minutes before I finally fell back asleep and then 10 minutes later Ethan came in. It was so fun cause he just crawled into bed by me and cuddled with me for about 10 minutes. I loved it! He told me all about what he had dreamed about that night and about all the things that he wanted to do that day. We finally got up and went downstairs to play his new favorite game Disney Bingo and had played a game when Abby woke up. We then went upstairs to have breakfast, a bagel followed by the doughnut their mother promised they could have. Then we loaded up and took a trip to my house to pick out some movies to watch during the day. Then we stopped at my office to say hi to Grandma. Grandma was in talking to Dan so we went into his office to find her. Abby kept wiping her hair out of her face, since she wouldn't let me do it before we left adamently declaring that "Mommy does it!", so Grandma asks Dan for a rubber band so she can pull Abby's hair back, which Abby refused. But Ethan grabs a rubber band and immediately starts trying to shoot it at Dan without much success until Grandma and Dan work with him on his technique. The best part was that Ethan did master the technique and shot Dan in the well..........yea. Anyway after we finished at the office we went back home and played around a little and then Ethan wanted to watch one of the movies he picked out, Mulan. So we watched Mulan and then decided that we were ready for lunch. I had promised the kids that we could go to McDonalds, Ethan loves going there, and so we headed off. When we pulled up I was about to park and take the kids in so that they could play on the toys, but then remembered Megs asking that I not take them anywhere that they could get sick, so I told them that there were too many people at McDonalds so we were just gonna get our food and go home. They were slightly disappointed, but they were really good about it. We then went home and ate then played a couple more rounds of Disney Bingo and then put in another movie to watch. During the second movie Abby passed out on the couch for about 30 minutes. The movie was almost over when my cell phone rang and Mark called to tell Ethan and Abby that they had a new little sister. Abby still tired from her nap really didn't seem to grasp the concept, but Ethan was a little bummed. He talked to his dad for a while and then after we hung up Ethan looked up at me and asked me why Heavenly Father didn't send him a brother. It was so sweet. I just told him that Heavenly Father must think that he is such a good big brother to Abby that he would do well with another sister. He accepted that answer but did not seem to excited about it. We started another movie and just hung out downstairs for about another hour and then Grandma showed up to watch the kids for about an hour while I went to work with one of my kids. Then I came back and Grandma, Grandpa, and I loaded up the kids and went down to IF to see the baby.

Ethan was sooooo Excited on the way down to see his new sister.
Abby and I got a little bored in the back seat so to entertain ourselves we pulled out my camera and had some fun.

When we got down to Idaho Falls we stopped at Bajio's to get dinner, cause Maegan was seriously wanting it. Then we took our food the hospital and proceeded to eat Bajio's in her room. It was awesome. After Ethan got to hold his new sister he was absolutely in love with her. He wanted to hold her all the time after that. Abby wasn't really all that sure about this new baby, especially since it meant that her Mommy wouldn't be coming home with them, but she eventually warmed up to her.
This is my new niece Whitney Hymas. Unless of course Mark and Maegan have changed her name since I talked to them.
And this is me with my new really cute niece that looks an awful lot like her older sister did when she was a baby.

What The!

2008-01-28T21:36:00.000-08:00

K so today in Rexburg it was like 20 something degrees and the wind was blowing so it was pretty freaking cold right. So I was at my house and we get toned out to send two ambulances to Jefferson County to assist with a Truck verses a Bus accident. Anyway so I go out and jump in my truck and pull out of my garage to see my neighbor across the street and one house down out shoveling his driveway. Normal right? Nope. This guy is out in a BATHROBE with a coat over the top of it. What is he wearing under that bathrobe? I can tell you cause just as I pull out there is this big gust of wind that blows his bathrobe apart in the front and low and behold all he is wearing under his bathrobe is his G's. Now seriously who goes out in the freaking cold to shovel their driveway in their underwear with just a bathrobe over top? My neighbor apparently! So safe to say I don't think we will be friends cause I don't think that I can ever look him in the face.

Getting Through

2008-01-24T21:17:00.000-08:00

So in my job I spend all day working with mentally ill kids trying to help them gain insight and learn how to deal with the problems in their lives, but for the most part they struggle to understand what I am teaching them. Today was a pretty good day though because I actually got through to one of my kids today! It was awesome. I spend several hours a week with these kids and even though they know the rules and do what I ask them, even with the occasional tantrum or really bad day, I don't often get to see that "aha" moment of them getting something that I have been working with them on for a while. It is an amazingly cool feeling to know that after all those hours that you put in something finally gets through to them. Not to say that what I do with them every time I meet with them is useless, but it does take a while for them to get the concepts because they are kids. So yeah, that was pretty great!

Happy Birthday Mommy

2008-01-24T21:00:00.000-08:00

Today is my mom's birthday so HAPPY BIRTHDAY THE MOMMY!!!!!

Since it was mom's birthday we all went to Gringo's for dinner with all of my brothers that live here and their families. I absolutely love spending time with my family and it is great to have a good excuse like today. The best part was when the Gringo's staff came out and sang to mom, even though I had made it very clear that she didn't want anyone to sing to her and that if they did she would probably kill someone, specifically me. Anyway my brothers being the funny boys that they are insisted that it was her birthday and that they should sing, so they did. Mom's face was priceless.

Since today is my mom's birthday I felt that it would be a good time to express some of my feelings about her. Okay Mom, get out your tissues cause I am about to write some really nice things about you. :) My mom is absolutely one of my favorite people in the world. It doesn't matter what is going on in my life, good or bad, my mother is the first person I want to talk to about it. I never had a sister growing up so my mom really was my best friend and she continues to be to this day. We had some really great arguments when I was a teenager, but I remember listening to my friends complain about their mothers and how much they hated them for not allowing them to do things they wanted to do and I remember just thinking how great it was that I never felt that way about my mom. My mom continues to amaze me everyday with her strength, knowledge, and just plain amazing insight. She can always make me see things the way I should, especially when I am angry or upset about something. I just hope that one day when I have kids I can be half the amazing mother that she has always been.

Busy Saturday

2008-01-20T16:37:00.000-08:00

So Saturday was pretty interesting, I worked a 12 hour second out shift at the fire station and was a little worried about having to get up early since my shift starts at 6 a.m. Well fortunately we didn't get any call until about 10:30 but from then on I spent most of the day at the station because we kept getting calls. I even got two calls on the second out ambulance. Our first call was a rendevous with Island Park ambulance for a head injury so we were all excited and jumped into the ambulance and went flying up towards Island Park. About 5 miles outside of Ashton we got cancelled. There is nothing that makes you look cooler than speeding up the road lights and sirens making people get out of your way only to suddenly turn everything off and slow down cause you got cancelled, yea people look at you a little funny. Our second call, or I guess I should say MY second call since I was the only one in the ambulance, was to a fire alarm at Nauvoo House. We were all excited thinking maybe it would be a sweet car accident or a real fire, but sadly it was just a false alarm. But the funny thing was, that since it was a fire alarm I took my sweet time getting out to the ambulance and so the fire truck left and was about two blocks ahead of me enroute, so I take my time driving thinking that as soon as the truck gets on scene they will cancel me and I can go back to the station right? Wrong. I pull up at Nauvoo House just after the officer, who apparently didn't really know where he was going, only to find out that the fire truck was not there yet. Weird right? Anyway so I pull the ambulance out of the way, flip the lights on, and get out to wait cause I don't have turn outs on so technically I am not allowed to go into the building until the fire personel clear it. So I get out and just stand there looking all cool next to the ambulance for about 2 to 3 minutes before the fire truck finally shows up across the way at the wrong Nauvoo House building. So then I have to wait another minute or two for them to finally make their way over to where they are supposed to be and they park right next to the officer's car blocking the only entrance/exit to the parking lot. At this point I realize that I am stuck and I am going to be here for the entire call, so I just get out and start B.S.ing (is that a word? Did I spell it right if it is? Oh well) with the managers about what we are doing. Then we finally clear and go back to the station where I have to now write a report that consists of "We went to Nauvoo House for a fire alarm. No fire found." Yea that's it. I wish my notes for Upper Valley were that easy. "Worked with client on social skills. Client still has poor social skills." That would be sweet. Once I finally got done with calls, at about 5:50, I rushed home to shower and get ready for my friend Kali's bridal shower at 6:30 and yes I was ready in time. :) I was kinda interesting cause when we got there no one answered the door so Mom and I just walked in, but there were a lot of guys there and stuff so safe to say we were confused. So Mom and I, not wanting to look stupid, stepped back outside to discuss whether we got the date for the shower right or not since Mom recieved the invite not me. Then I proceeded to call Kali on her cell to see if the shower was indeed that night and it was and we were at the right place. Apparently the guys, her brother's, fiancee, father, and grandfather were just hanging out so that they could eat dinner which was being served to all of us, then they were going to go elsewhere. So the shower was fun, but very long. Mom and I had both eaten, the invites did not say that we were going to eat, so we just kinda stood there looking cool since we only knew Kali. Then an old friend of mine Karen came and talked to me for a while which was nice. After about 45 minutes to an hour of eating we finally started the shower. We played some typical bridal shower games and then we opened presents. It was sweet cause mom and I went to Victoria Secret and mom got some of the lotion and body spray she likes and then we went to Deseret Book and got her a book on living a covenent marriage. We then put the book in the Victoria Secret bag and took it to the shower. So as you can all imagine I walked in carrying this bag with a huge grin on my face and immediately Kali began to worry. The look of relief on her face when she opened it and found out that it was not at all what she expected was awesome. Anyway after presents were opened we hung out for a bit and then we left. That was my exciting Saturday. This is a really long post, but it will likely not happen much so do not get used to it.

Girls Nite Out

2008-01-18T21:52:00.000-08:00

So tonight I convinced a couple of my sister-in-laws and my best friend Kimmy to ditch their husbands and come hang out with me and a couple of friends from work who are single. It was nice to go out with just the girls! We went to Craigo's for dinner which actually took a lot longer than we thought cause apparently everyone wanted to eat there at the same time as us, then we went and watched a chick flick, 27 dresses. It was so nice to sit through a chick flick and not be harassed by guys who move in their seats and make exasperated noises to show how annoyed they are that they came. :) It was a lot of fun and I am going to try to get these gals to go out about once a month or so, you know whenever we can get it to work out. Craigo's was fun cause I ran into an old friend that I haven't seen since before she left on her mission. It's always fun to be reminded that while everyone else seems to be moving on with their lives, you know marriage and kids and stuff, I am still here working.

I gave in!

2008-01-18T21:29:00.000-08:00

K well Megs has been harassing me about getting one of these even though I keep telling her that my life is really boring. I'm not really all that sure how interesting this will be cause those who know me well know that I am not the type to spill my guts or write a lot of stuff about myself so we'll see how this goes.