Moving Preparations

So I have been busy getting everything ready for the big move to DC on August 1st. A part of that has been trying to get all my projects finished, trying to decrease as much junk as possible. I also have gone into panic mode and am trying to do all sorts of things that I know I won't have time for once I'm back in school. This quilt has been the most recent project I've been working on. It still has a long way to go, but this is how much I have done so far. I'm still learning how to sew straight, which I've learned isn't easy when you are sewing all sorts of different type of fabrics together, but I'm getting better. You can tell I started on the left and worked my way to the right because my sewing is straighter :) I have also been going into high speed reading mode with all the books that I've been trying to read. I got 16 books from a second hand store when I went to go visit my friend Sarah (the girl I went to Ethiopia with) in Grand Junction, Colorado for a week. I just realized that I didn't post a blog about that...I will do that next. But I have already read "The Historian" and have almost complete "Band of Brothers" about Easy company in WWII and "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. I have already learned so much from these books and can't wait to read what else I bought. I absolutely Loved and I mean Loved "John Adams" and also just finished John Berandt's "City of Fallen Angels" about the burning of the Fenice, Venice's Opera house in 1996.

Also part of me getting ready to go back to school has been taking advantage of my dental and vision insurance while I still have it. This picture is of me right after I had my wisdom teeth pulled. All four and the bottom two ere impacted and the bone was getting infected. I was retarded and didn't think it would be a big deal and had them removed on my day off on Tuesday and showed up to work the next day. My boss thought I was crazy and after lunch overruled my comments that I was ok and could work and sent me home and told me that I could only come back the next day if I had a doctor's note. Thank you Shar, I hurt more then I thought it would. I also had three fillings and my teeth cleaned and then got new glasses, which I am sporting in the picture as well.

A Murder Roman Style

Last night we had our second Murder Mystery Dinner. This one we had such a blast doing the costumes and playing around with the Roman Theme. We made this really good pork roast recipe that came with the game and had Caesar salad and rolls of course. Then we turned the back room into a lounging area with pillows and sheets where we ate dinner. Bonnie Jeane was Cleptopatra, Keith was Maximus Testosterous, the Roman Centurion, I was Mercedes Acceleratti (wife of the murdered, Flabius Corpus), Scott was Lecentius Caesar, Joe was Harangus, the Senator, Emily was Flotilla, but we call her Flo, Jen was Rotunda the Vestal virgin, and Curtis Bogus the Priest of the Blue Oyster. Yeah we look pretty amazing I know.
Here was our spread for appetizers. Lots of cheese, crackers, nuts, and bread with some Orangina, because Orangina is totally Roman. Everyone knows that!!

The ladies of the evening. Tammy was good enough to be the host with Burkley and they came dressed as Venus and Jupiter. They were good sports about it since they didn't have much of a roll to play.

Yeah we like to call ourselves the Oneders (anyone? anyone?). We are highly desirable and totally available in case you were wondering.

Yeah I know that no one can handle the Queen of the Nile. And don't worry, a name comes along with all of those rippling pectorals.

This looks just like either an engagement photo or a prom picture. And it looks like Curtis even got Jen a corsage. Curtis' favorite part was being able to wear a skirt, he said that way you don't get things on the floor because when you drop them they always fall in the lap.

Scott was too excited about having Cleptopatra to feed him grapes, but apparently it didn't end up happening. He was a good sport after spending the day moving into his new house in 105 degree weather and then even sacrificing his towel for the occasion. Note the strong resemblance to Tupac.

We had a ton of laughs and are already planning our next Murder Mystery for next month, you can look forward to "The Class of 54" in June.

So I officially got accepted to Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia to get my Post Bach. I leave for DC the first week of August. I am so excited about getting back to school but also a bit scared. But this way I'll be able to apply to Physicians Assistant and nursing school next year. I'm well on my way!!

Here are the long promised pictures of my room since I finally got everything set up. Funny now that I only have 2 and a half months left in our cute little home with the Oneders.

Yeah, so I still haven't even started on recovering the other chair, but I'm trying to get my quilt finished first.

Yeah, my room is huge!! Tons of room for my football games I like to play on my rug.

I am now reading this book called "City of Fallen Angels" about Venice just after the Fenice burned from the perspective of a journalist who decided to live there for two years and see what really makes Venice tick, besides all the tourists. It makes me want to go back to Venice. I highly recommend it as it talks about all the pleasures and what Venice is really about. Apparently if you are a local you get charged 30-40% less at restaurants and grocery stores, and everything is negotiable. So interesting!!

"What a Wonderful World"

So life has been pretty interesting as always. With this whole Swine flu outbreak work has been absolutely and completely nuts these past three days. But today was the worst. Such a silly thing has caused mass panic in the Phoenix area and parents are freaking out. I have a lot to say on the subject and the whole media blowing this completely out of proportion. You'd think we would have learned from our mistakes from the last so called Swine flu outbreak in 1976, which by-the-way they confirmed after the fact that it never happened and the shots they developed to prevent the swine flu actually caused more illnesses then the actual flu, which never even happened. Same thing here. The only ones you should actually listen to are the WHO and CDC. So there I'll get off my soap box.

Besides that life is grand. My quilt is coming along great, when I make a bit more progress I'll post some pictures. I'm SO close to finishing the biography of "John Adams" which has been such a great learning experience. What a neat man!! And most importantly I finally finally was able to go camping!! Thursday night Bonnie Jeane and I were sitting in the living room and we've been planning with our friends for months to try and go camping, but something always seemed to come up. So we decided we'd just go. And Bonnie Jeane had never been to Sedona so we thought we'd give it a shot right after work on Friday.

So besides a few setbacks, like leaving a lot later then planned, and BJ leaving her purse at home when we were already 30 min away and so trying to meet up with Jen somewhere in between to get it, and then not being able to find a camping site because they were all FULL!!! So here's some of the adventure......

This actually wasn't a bad camping ground for finding it at 9pm on a Friday night. Yeah for being right next to the latrines. :) But we had a great fire (started by me, thank you very much) and then just chilled, talked, read (yeah we're dorks, but at least we know it) and we were going to roast marshmallows, but granola bars and fruit snacks are so much more accessible.
Sleeping in my new sleeping bag I got for my Birthday!! This was the first chance I had to use it outdoors. That is me dreaming of said fruit snacks.

Cooking chicken and veggies over BJs really cool portable "stove", or oven burner if you will. With our efforts combined we can made some dang good food though.
Enjoying the fruits, of veggies, of our labors.

Just some of the places we ran into while hiking around Saturday....

So pretty!!! I love all the red rock. Arizona does have some things to offer to the lovers of the aesthetics...well mostly :)

Yeah, we're tough, big and bad girls who like to go camping by ourselves...bring on the rain!

Me trying to make it to the middle of the river

BJs amazing balancing skills

Yeah I'm sort of a big deal

And of course we can't forget about Easter!! Jen's Dad was in town and we went to the Easter Pageant at the Temple, which, despite what my friends might have thought, they did a pretty good job. But when we got home I was pretty insistent that we color eggs just because my old roommates and I did it all through college and would have Easter egg hunts. So we colored the most amazing eggs, compliments of our friend Emily, and then Jen's dad hid the eggs in our house Sunday morning. And we spend Easter Dinner at Emily's house, compliments of her wonderful parents!!

Us up and rearing to go with our Easter Baskets in hand. Since I was the baby of the house they so graciously let me go first.

Only the most amazing egg ever. Seriously, you are all better people now for it and can sleep better at night knowing that an Ohio State Buckeyes Easter Egg exists. Life fulfillment worthy.

"Would you like to kiss the lucky egg?!" Anyone...Anyone......

Our very serious and intent egg coloring party. There is some serious fun happening in this room right now.

So of course life is still grand and wonderful and enjoying the beautiful weather before the heat reaches killer levels. Oh Arizona. I do love you!

Living the Dream!!!

So I have been busy these past few weeks, and having a blast of course. I saw two more Operas with Sarah. The first one was Mozart's "Don Giavanni" and then Pucinni's "Tosca". Both very good. It was nice to have something to dress up for and to have an excuse to have Sarah come down from Colorado. And we had a lot of adventures while on the way. I think we have a curse to be perpetually late to the opera or something. It never seemed to work out, but we made it...eventually!! And now you all know how I am even more a dork then you thought. Yes, I love the opera :)

I also recently took a trip to Washington DC to visit my family and go to the DC temple. It was an incrediable experience and it came at the right time in my life. I was able to see my old friend that I knew from growing up in the Kirtland Stake and her husband, Cambria and Sean Neumann. So fun that they live in the same ward with my parents. And then Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Bob came up as well which was SO great of them! And of course it was so great to see President Ed Shultz or "Opa" attend the session with me as well. And then after a few relaxing days of spending time with the parentals and fam, we drove to met Jessica and her man Kelan halfway and ate dinner at Chili's just so I could see my beloved sister. One of them that is. :) But seriously, I think Jessica and I have been banned from ever appearing together in public again.

What else, I yes I think I've finally figured out what I'm going to do with school. I'm going to cover all my bases now. I'm going to move back to DC to live with the fam until I get settled, and now that I'm finally certified I can apply for lots of fun MA jobs in the DC area, and then I'm applying to a few of the schools in the area to get a Post Bach and take more Organic Chem, Genetics again, Physiology again, more Bio Chem, a few more chem labs, things like that while I'm applying for a Masters in Public Health. Then if that doesn't work I'm applying to nursing school AND PA school again since I'd have a wider base of classes taken by then, and then if I do nursing I'll just go the Nurse Practitioner route. So keeping all my bases covered. I'll probably move out there at the end of summer when my housing contract is over.

Oh, for General Conference I also went to Mesa and stayed with Katherine and Michelle and we continued the tradition from college where we built a tent in the living room and watched General conference. We also orderd in Chinese food and Katherine had the joy of her first experience of Chinese Take Out and watching a Chick Flick while in a tent. She was actually just excited that they came in the cute boxes.

I have also been asked by my good friend Robin Cupal from work to be her bridesmaid in October. And the BEST part of the whole thing (yes I know, this makes Bridesmaid #10, if I only had saved all my dresses, then I could have had my own closet of bridesmaid's dresses, 27 dresses watch out, I'm catching on to you) is that she is getting married in M*ch*g*n!! Yes, believe it or not I'm going to be able to stay with Nate and Mari and visit them. And perhaps catch a football game at the Big House. Just for the pure love of football mind you. I'd never ever betray my Bucks.

A goulosh of things

Ok so here I go again for a quick update. I moved into a cute little house with my old roommate Jen Armstrong and the newest addition to our posse, Bonnie Jeane Lynes. It is a little 3 bedroom 2 bath house that came furnished so I didn't have to buy a bed!! Wahoo!! But we did bust out my 42 inch flat screen I won at my work Christmas party, and it is pretty nice I must admit. I still have not gotten my other furniture from storage, but when I do I'll post the "After" pictures.

Then at work my Medical Assistant Certification still hadn't gone through, so about a month ago they moved me to helping check patients in every morning and then I'm running triage in the afternoon. So I basically spend my afternoons on the phone tell parents how to help their children's cough and reassuring them that their child isn't going to die. I have to wear my glasses everyday now since staring at the screen was giving me horrible headaches every day, so I feel even more sexy in my glasses and scrubs every day. But I am learning SO much doing triage. I learned all about eczema and ringworm today. And I can do pink eye, cough, croup, and constipation protocols in my sleep now. Oh and lice, you can't forget the parents that keep calling about their children and lice. But my I did finish all my classes for BYU Independent Study and also all my classes for my certification, so I talked to American Medical Technologists today and they said I should be able to call them on Friday about my approval to finally take the national Registered Medical Assistant certification exam. But they are moving me to run another doctor, Dr. Hineman. Who is a very nice lady, but has a very strong personality and they needed a MA who would be able to handle her...so guess who got that job?! Yep. But I'm sure it will be great and I'll learn from her just as I learned so much from Doctor Shepherd. But I will miss Dr Shepherd so much!! I did also attend Dr Prentice's Wedding on Valentine's Day which was very nice and reminded me how nice Arizona is in the winter since we had the entire wedding outside!!

Ok, and even more news...wait for it...wait for it.....I'm 25!! Ah!! Ok, so it isn't that big of a deal, and to tell you the truth I think I like 25 better then 24. But I had a great Birthday. I woke up with signs over the house wishing my happy birthday, including one in the fridge, which freaked me out (I jumped like ten feet, yes white girls can have hops too!). And Jen had a nice bathrobe for me since my room is in the back of the house and the bathroom in the front, that way I don't have to walk around the house in my towel. :) Then the girls at work decorated my little triage cubicle in pink, yes because they know me well enough to know that I'm not exactly the biggest fan of pink. And they decorated my desk with flowers and bought me lunch and made me wear this big pink ribbon saying it was my birthday. Then I came home and jammed with Jen on our guitars and Bonnie Jeane bought us Thai for dinner. yes my very very favorite, which I insisted we eat on the floor. Then they sang to me and I had to blow out candles on my football field cake (how convenient that the Super Bowl was only a week ago)!! And they got me beautiful flowers too!!

Then on Friday a bunch of us went out to Teppanyaki and my old roommate who live in Mesa, Katherine and Michele drove up. dinner was delicious and of course I had to have some sushi too!! And then we went and saw "New in Town" which was absolutely adorable. And on Saturday we had a house warming/birthday party with delicious food, of course karaoke, and games. I think we played Nerts for about two hours. It really was a great birthday. And I laughed because my family know me SO well.....I finally got my Ballack Jersey! It only made pretty much my entire life!! And then a sleeping bag, so now I have NO excuse to not go camping. I'm just only slightly excited. :)

Then on Valentine's Day my roommates and our friend Tammy decided to get together and have a Murder Mystery Dinner and make the best of Singles Awareness Day. Oh my goodness it was so fun!! The worst part was trying to find a date, or even get up the courage to ask a guy, I think I lost a few years off my life just from the stress of having to do that, but I survived!! But our group was perfect and we all fit our characters and really enjoyed the evening. We already have another game to do in a few weeks again......but I'm not even going to think about having to find another date.....

Besides that there are a few more eventful things coming up soon which I'm looking forward to!! I did speak and teach in church two weeks ago which was an interesting but incredible learning experience. I did get rejection letters for PA school from Midwestern and James Madison and I'm still waiting to hear from PCOM. But Southern University (the one in Savannah) did contact me today because they don't start until January 2010 and applications aren't due until March to make sure I was still interested in applying for their program. I'm looking at other masters programs and things to do if I don't get in, because I can't remain sane as a MA for the rest of my life. But I'm grateful for all I've learned and the experiences that my current job has been teaching me. I know the Lord has a plan, but any suggestions for a career in the medical field would be greatly appreciated!!

Fiesta Bowl

It is official, I had almost the best day of my life on 1/05/2009. I finally fulfilled my life long dream of actually seeing the Ohio State Buckeyes in person. This was my Christmas present to myself. I went with my friend Robin from work who loves football as much as I do. So she really wanted to come and experience a good bowl game, even though she is an avid M*ch*g*n fan. She did wear a grey shirt just so she wouldn't get jumped though, and beleive it or not we saw two other Wolverine fans in our section. We sat in the West inzone on the 23rd row, not bad seats if I may say so myself!! And thanks so tostitos everyone got a free bag of their new hint of jalepeno scoops chips and a thing of salsa....after downing our hot dogs and drinks, those were gone in about 5 min. So good!! I was pretty much dilerious with happiness most of the time....ok not during the 3rd quarter and the last 16 seconds of the game...and at the end, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I got to watch the dotting of the "I" in script Ohio, which was amazing, and chear my team on as they rushed the field, and Tressel, sweaterboy and all, and "Beanie" Wells, hearing the band playing "Across the Field" and pretty much everything. I am also glad we didn't get blown out like the past two national championship games, just mad that we totally blew it with 16 seconds left, I mean we had it!!

But a few funny stories, everyone around us kept referring to me and Robin as sisters because they thought we looked exactly alike which we thought was hilarious until we looked at our picture and realized they were right. Then there was a mix of Buckeye and Longhorn fans in around us, and we made friends with the Buckeyes fans around us. They were from all over Ohio, Dayton, Toledo, Akron, and some that lived in Phoenix. It was nice to feel the comradory and know I'm not alone in my love of the Buckeyes, dispite the hard time I tend to get from friends here in Phoenix and back at BYU. Texas fans are hilarious. They came doecked out in chaps, cowboy hats, the works. These two all fancy fancy guys sitting a few seats down from us made a huge fuss during the 3rd quarter, only to find out that one of the guys had taken off his boot because they were too uncomfortable, and someone stole one!! The rest of the game he kept yelling at us buckeye fans and looking in our direction and had everyone around us looking for his lost boot (Oh don't worry, he found it 7 rows back at the end of the game, his friennd decided it would be funny to play a joke on him). Note to any Texas fan, do not remove your boots in public. Then they also brought a live longhorn...he was HUGE!! He had BeVmo across his nose and just stood their...like a cow pretty much. That is until "The Best Darn Band in the Land" performed at half time and set off fireworkes when they played the 1812 Overture. Oh did that poor cow recieve more excitement then he ever has in his life!! He threw a fit and had all the trainers going bezurk just to keep him from rushing off the field. I tried to get some pictures since he was so close but people were always in the way. Just trust me, it made us Buckeye fans glad that we didn't bring nuts to all our games, besides Brutus of course!!

I did end up sitting next to a Texas fan and his wife and he took it upon himself to try to upset the Buckeye fans around him, especially me. But after my previous experience at the 2006 national championship I held my tongue (I know you'd be so proud of me Jenny) and let him scream in my ear....which was still ringing that night. You'd think he would have lost his voice or something, but nope, vocal cords of steel!!

I would give a play by play and summerize the game, but those of you who care already watched it or the highlights, but yes, we lost 21-24 and they scored with 16 seconds left in game, after we missed a field goal and two 2 point conversions...which would have won the game, but alas it is over. It was worth it, and I'd do it again in a heart beat. Go Buckeyes!! And don't you worry, I'll find my way to the Horseshoe someday soon. Now THAT is a promise!!

Witness after the trial of your faith

I hate doing this...this blog thing. I feel like it is too impersonal, and I'd rather just call everyone up and talk to them, or go visit, but we all know how good I am at doing that. But I'm writing today because there are some lessons I've learned, especially these past few days, and I feel as if I have to write them down. I still have no clue if people actually read this thing or not, but here are a few words of wisdom as I pour out my soul.

One of the main reasons I haven't written is because I've been talking to a guy. When I went to Disneyland in August we stayed with a fun family. They were serving, and everything you'd hope a good family who exemplified their Father would be. And of course they had a son. I watched him and how he interacted with others, in particular his family. But I later found out he was in the middle of a divorce, and that he also had severe health problems. Even though he was obnoxious at times because he was loud and knew that he was right, I left wondering if I'd ever see him again, but knowing that it wasn't appropriate to pursue anything at that time. He'd offered to take Katherine and me surfing anytime we came down again and so about a month later I found him on Facebook and sent him a message asking him if he was serious. He said that of course he was and that we could come down anytime. I planned a few trips, but I still didn't feel good about going down just yet....so I waited. And we talked. I could talk to him and ask him anything I wanted. He isn't afraid of the truth and is very blunt, when it comes to telling others what he thinks. He became my best friend. All this time I kept justifying that is was ok because the divorce was already filed before we met and that the end date was in sight, and we planned our lives accordingly. And of course, life never works out the way we plan. The finalization of the divorce was supposed to happen this week. Of course complications arose and now it looks like the divorce will take another year before it is finalized. And we knew that we needed to end it right then and there. We had been wrong.

But I want to testify to you and to myself that through obeying the Lord, truly trusting your entire life in Him, brings blessings unmeasurable. And blessings incomprehensible. Yes, even in this life. But it doesn't take away the fact that he was still married. We can be deceived, and justify and think that WE are the exception, we are stronger then others, we can walk that line. And Satan really does just whittle away and work at you very slowly until you can't see that you are doing something wrong. Even if in our mind we are truly truly convinced that we are not doing anything wrong. He was married. It wasn't final. And that was that. We both thought it was ok because there was an end in sight, but we never could have foreseen what was in the future. We cannot live our lives dependent upon what might happen in the future. We cannot justify. The worst part is I know we cannot talk anymore. And because of my choices I am miserable because I cannot be there for my friend, because I thought it was ok. I've learned we can do anything we set our minds too. Even if we are so sick that at times we cannot function. We can still live our lives to the fullest. We figure out how. And we can be Happy while doing it. Life is a gift, this gospel is the greatest gift. And it is important that we share that gift. Do what you want to do today. Don't wait for tomorrow. Act now. Don't be afraid to act because of others judgements. Happiness does not come from what others think of you, but from what you think of yourself, but most importantly, it comes from the realization that our Heavenly Father loves us. We can find true happiness from serving others, and not focusing on our own trials.

I do not know what lies ahead. I do not know what the Lord has in store for me. But I know that I have a loving family who will support me and guide me, and I have a Heavenly Father who knows me better then anyone else, and knows what we can and can't handle, because trials not only make us stronger, but they bring us closer to Him. And I know that true happiness comes from within, and not from what others might think of me. If we try to look to them for approval we will never experience true happiness. I am a Divine Daughter of Deity. His literal offspring. I am powerful beyond measure, power comes from knowledge, a knowledge of Him and the truths that we can learn. Knowledge is the most priceless gift, never stop learning. And never never think we are the exception. Christ did not allow himself to be tempted. Even in such a vulnerable state as when he had fasted for 40 days he told Satan "to get thee hence". Do not entertain him. Do not invite him over for dinner. Do not even poke fun at him and laugh at him from a distance. Do not plan your life according to what might happen. Live it to the fullest. To my readers, never give up, never give in. God gives us commandments to make us free. And I see that now, I was not free, and I am still not free, yet. But I know through Heavenly Father and His Atonement I can be healed, my heart will mend and life will go on, and I will be happy again. Soon.