Jen's Last Weekend

My roommate Jen was leaving for Switzerland for 6 weeks to teach and I would have moved by the time she got back, so for her last weekend we went all out. I took Friday and Monday off of work (Dr Hineman was out of town again which worked out perfectly). We ended up using her parents time share and staying at a resort in Scottsdale, just about 20 min from our house. This way we could take full advantage of the pool and just relax.

And of course it isn't a weekend with the Oneders unless there is a murder mystery. We did the Class of 54' which was the best one we've done yet, at least scandalous wise. My character was named Dee and I was a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who made a life for herself and was currently in law school.
This is us working on dinner. We had hamburgers, and salsa and watermelon and all sorts of fun stuff. You can tell I spend the day at the pool by how burnt my face is!!

This was my date Dave. I met him at a YSA Conference a few weeks before when he asked me to dance because he'd recognized me from church. We also got to know each other a bit better when we had our ward boating activity and he and I were on the same boat and wake boarded all day. That was a fun trip and I'm now addicted to wake boarding.

The guys of the evening. The Jock, the geek, the tough guy, and the business man.

The ladies of the evening. Yes, Bonnie Jeane is wearing my old bridesmaid dress. The best was Jen's poodle skirt. She made it herself the night before.

So to complete our weekend at the resort we thought golfing would be a blast. Keep in mind that Jen, Curtis and I had never been golfing, so it was quite the hilarious 4 hours. But we were able to keep up with the guys ahead of us, and even skipped a few holes to get ahead of them since they kept taking so long!! Four men, 5 golf bags, and they were appalled that we were golfing with only one bag of 5 clubs that we had borrow from Bonnie Jeane. This is Curtis tickling Jen as usual.

I LOVED driving the golf carts around. It made the whole thing in 100 degree weather totally worth it. I can die happy now.

Me holding the flag for Curtis to make his put.

This was me helping Jen look for her ball, but when I saw Curtis taking a picture I tried to run away because I didn't want to be associated with the picture of looking in the bushes. I only lost one ball. I was very proud of myself!!

Trying to be as official as possible and lining up my shot. Or just being retarded as usual.

Let just say we were just glad that we didn't get kicked off the course or anything for how bad we were!!

Here is BJ and Emily showing off their head stand skills while goofing off in the room of our resort.

I'm going to miss Jen a ton and I'm sad that she is gone already. I have the best roommates who make life so much easier and are so fun!! And of course Emily our adopted roommate. :)

Colorado - Ees for fun!!

So Dr Hineman went on vacation for 2 weeks in May and to save myself from boredom I took the last week off and decided to go visit Sarah Londberg in Grand Junction, CO. She was the girl I went to Ethiopia with and my Opera going buddy. We started the week off by going camping at Buckeye Lake. And I promise that the name is a total coincidence. It was fate. This was true camping, us and the lake and the fish. We did run into the lake manager the 2nd day we were there and so he made us pancake, bacon and eggs for breakfast. The rest of the time we ate what we caught. It was so beautiful!! Here is my first fish I have ever caught. I named him Trouty One. I was a bit freaked out, I didn't know they were so slimy!!

Here is the fruits of our spoils. I even learned how to gut my own fish!! Then we just wrapped them in tin foil, threw them in, and flavored with some lemon after. So good!!

Remember how I have lived in Phoenix for 18 months now? Yeah, I used to not be able to handle the cold but now I'm really a wimp when it comes to the cold. This is my camping Star Wars style trying to keep warm.

Sarah trying not to go crazy with the Granddaddy fish that decided to make a game out of teasing us. Sarah hooked him 5 times and every time he got up and we both swear he swam right up to the shore, popped his head out and stuck his tongue out at her. He was really good at also getting the bait off of her hook. We were determined, but unfortunately granddaddy fish was conqueror in the end.

Me being so grateful for our Captain America Powerbait. And a bit cold since I just went for a swim in the lake. I needed a bath!!

So after camping for three days people started coming up for Memorial Day and so Sarah and I booked it down the mountain, not wanting to be caught in the madness that was becoming the lake.

We found our way to Sarah's Aunts house where we were going to take her three horses for a ride down some of the trails and just enjoy the beautiful Colorado country side. Unfortunately the horses had something else in mind. Her aunt, who has been riding horses since she was 11, was thrown off of the horse Jack and ended up breaking her finger. Then Sarah got up on Diablo who slammed her into a fence, badly bruising her leg, and then fell on his side, kicking her off. Jack wouldn't let anyone touch him and her aunt finally calmed Diablo down. So we settle for running around the arena down the road. It took some coaxing to convince Sarah to get up on my horse Santana, who was gentle and so responsive. This is me and Santana after going for a few laps around the area at a pretty fast pace. So fun!!

So for the rest of memorial day weekend Sarah and I went antique shopping and went to second hand book stores, where I bought 16 books that I'm now currently working on. Sarah also wanted to take me dancing, so we ended up at a country dance place, and were a bit more dressed up then everyone else. But one 60 year old man kept asking me to dance, and it was fun to bust out my country dance moves from my class I took at BYU. Needless to say it was an interesting experience. I'd never had so many guys pay so much attention to me as they all kept offering to buy me a drink. I'm sure you can imagine the looks on their faces when I told them I didn't drink and went back on the dance floor to teach Sarah some awesome dance moves.

It was such a nice relaxing week. Sarah is such a great friend and I'm so grateful for her!!

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.