San Francisco!

Yes folks, this is not a picture of me at the Great Salt Lake. It is indeed, San Francisco! I was so excited to take a girls' trip to the city, especially because I have never been to California before. I had heard great things about San Francisco, and I was not disappointed! Unfortunately, I developed a bad case of laryngitis shortly after arriving, but that didn't stop me from enjoying every moment of the trip - great people, tons of laughs, and fun places to see! I wish my blog could accurately portray the amazingness of the trip, but I don't think it can. I'll have to settle for showing a few pictures I guess!

We were able to see Broadway's "Wicked" the evening we arrived. For those of you who haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it! It was very entertaining!

Hanging out in solitary confinement at Alcatraz!
My friend April looks pretty happy to be behind bars!

On Sunday we were able to enjoy God's great creation in the Redwood forest. Even though these woods are only a few minutes from the Golden Gate bridge, you would never know it when you are in the middle of them. It is so serene and beautiful!

A whole lot has happened in the past couple of weeks, so I'll post as fast as I can! It's definately the holiday season!
First of all, Thanksgiving. It was a gorgeous day here, and I decided to start off the year with a family-style football game with my church. Figured out I know how to play football even less than I thought, which is really saying something! I'm pretty sure the 8 year old boys were better than me! Ah, well, can't be good at everything! :)

A cute little girl from my church knitted me a hat and scarf - definately worth a picture for her effort!

To kick off the holidays, I invited several people to my house for christmas tree decorating, cookie-making, and homemade pizza. We also celebrated my friend Rachelle's birthday (yes, we have the same name, the same (obscure) job, and our birthdays are 3 days apart. Not to mention a wide variety of very random facts. Sometimes people think I am joking when I talk about her).



Notice the extra puffy pizza dough! It was a little larger than expected, but still very yummy!

My own birthday was very busy, both at work and after. The Jazz came to visit, so you could say I got a whole professional basketball team for my birthday! :) That evening was the hospital's Festival of Trees. It's amazing to see how much time and money people put into their donations. There were incredible gingerbread houses and playhouses up for grabs, and most of the trees sold for over a thousand dollars! A lot of the trees are in honor/memory of kids that were patients at Primary's. Below is a picture of a christmas tree done in memory of one of the oncology kids I worked with. Since I don't generally take pictures of any kids at the hospital, it's feels kind of nice to have a picture of something to remember her by.

something old, something new..

Something Old: Bowling! Brings back memories of cheese balls and smoky halls! I went with my volunteer group from the Dream Center. I learned a few tips from some of the "ahem" pro bowlers there (apparently the trick is to throw slowly and slightly crooked.. 20 some years of throwing hard and straight all for naught!) Something New: learning to swing dance! I always thought I had no rhythm and 2 left feet, but I actually had a ton of fun and have gone several times since then.

Something Normal: coffee with a couple of friends. Always nice to get together for a warm drink!

Something Blue: Go Aggies! I have a friend whose dad is the president of Utah State, and she invited me to enjoy the president's box for the game last weekend! She had heard that I have never been to a football game of any type before (not even pee-wee), and decided that had to change!

Touchdown!

I must say, I especially enjoyed the presidents box considering the weather we had that day (note very cold-looking loyal fans). It was quite enjoyable to be well-warmed with all the food and drink you want and a cushy seat instead of hard benches!

tis the season II

Halloween is always a huge event at Primary Children's hospital. Surprisingly, it's the most celebrated holiday of the year. I think the staff gets into it even more than the kids! Since part of my job consists of "normalizing" the hospital environment, we paly a big role in Halloween festivities. We usually help moniter a hospital party, help the kids create costumes, and then take the kids trick-or-treating around the hospital. This sounds fairly simple until you remember that some kids are bed-bound, which means we need to push them (and attaching IV poles) everywhere we go. It's no wonder halloween is so exhausting!
I personally am not a super-huge halloween celebrater, but I do dress up at the hospital, which is standard for the day. This year, I came up with the idea of Mr. Potato Head, with interchangeable parts stored in a flap in the back of my shirt. First interactive halloween costume I've ever had!

Funny comment recently heard at the hospital by a coworker~ She was working with a kid who recently had surgery, and had lost a tooth in the operating room. The child excitedly commented that the tooth fairy had still been able to pay a visit. Suddenly, he got a puzzled look on his face, and wondered aloud how the tooth fairy had figured out how to get into the operating area. A moment later, his face cleared, and he stated "ohh, she must have remembered to bring her GPS!"

Another notable event this week - I harvested my popcorn! I usually try at least one new crop each year, and popcorn was one of the ones I tried this year. Yes, popcorn is different from regular corn. There are several varieties that each taste slightly different. I opted for "carousal", a multi-color variety. I thought it sounded like fun! I don't know anybody else that has ever grown the crop, so I thought I'd be the first.

The cobs I harvested were very small, but perfect otherwise! I tried popping them in the microwave and it worked! It cracked me up, because some of the kernals popped right off the cob, and others stayed on. Therefore, I could eat some of the popcorn right off the cob, just like summer sweet corn! Below is a picture of my first experiment -I tried the smallest ear I could find first just in case I did it wrong.

tis the season III

Last week was a fairly full week for me. I spent the week "zoo-sitting" for a family in my church - 1 dog, 2 cats, a lizard, crickets to feed the lizard, fish, and a crab. I knew I was in for an interesting week when the family handed me a jar of ear plugs on my first day! Don't be hood-winked by the dog's innocent look in the picture above. She managed to run away twice and had a several house-training issues throughout the week. It's a good reminder for me that the reason I don't have a pet is largely because they are a lot of work!

Some friends and I decided to have a fall celebration to enjoy all the good parts of the season. We planned to make homemade soup in pumpkin shells, watch "Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin", put together various traditional fall goodies, and carve pumpkins. Here is a picture of my pumpkins before the event..

And here is a picture of my pumpkins after!

Yes, as you can see, we didn't get much done. In fact, we ended up ordering pizza instead of making soup, never got around to watching Charlie Brown, and didn't even get the pumpkins in the house. Once we sat down on the couch and started chatting, we never got anywhere else! To make up for the event, we tried it again a few days later. This time, we did get our pumpkins carved..

Aren't they cute? :)

To top it off, we had a midnight jump in the leaves! Yee-haw!

tis the season

There are a few things I really like about living in Utah. For one thing, I am STILL harvesting a few tomatoes -yes, in the last week of October! They still taste good, too!

I also enjoy the many rainbows I see around here. Storms here are generally a lot shorter than those in the midwest, so we get more rain/sun mixes, usually right above the mountains. This isn't a very strong one, but nice to see all the same!

Another notable occurance this week - the first real snow of the season! I actually really enjoy it - it makes me feel like Christmas is coming! I generally don't listen to Christmas music until the after Thanksgiving, but a make an exception on the first snow of the year! It also feels so nice to go home, cuddle in a blanket, and light some scented candles. I am glad I live somewhere that has four seasons.

Since I work in a Oncology clinic, I thought I'd look into becoming a bone marrow donor. Found out that it's really easy! All you have to do is go to http://www.dkmsamericas.org/ and sign up. They will send you a packet of Q-tips for you to swab your cheek. If you are found to be a match, you will be asked if you are still willing to have a bone marrow aspirate (you would most likely be asleep during the procedure and it would be no cost to you - a very simple procedure considering it could save a life and hardly any risk to you). So there's my plug - sign up! You could save someone's life!

I saw this video on someone else's blog, and thought it was a good reminder. I think I need to watch it every once in a while to remind myself of how silly my little complaints are. I confess that sometimes I am "that person". Who says there's nothing good on late night TV? (O wait, I think I've said that..) As an added benefit, you can be enterained by Conan's hair. I finally figured out what it reminds me of - it jiggles just like jello when he talks! :)

Check it out!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN0MpBQG3-E

British Columbia

A couple of weeks ago I was able to enjoy a wonderful vacation to Whistler, BC with my good friend Kristin. It was a perfect time of the year, and the fall leaves were in their prime! We had nice, sunny weather every day, and though it was a little bit chilly, we were active enough not to notice much until the end of the day when we could enjoy the fireplace in our room! We spent quite a bit of time mountain biking, which I didn't get any pictures of - I would like to keep my camera in one piece, thank you very much, so I didn't take it along. However, I did take some pictures on some of the hikes we did..

As you can see, the lakes are gorgeous! The intense blue hue comes from mineral deposited by glaciers.

We had to laugh at some of the trail names near the villiage. Gee I like your pants??? Wonder how that one got its name?

Have to get a good profile pic of me on a vacation like this..

Here's a glimpse of Whistler villiage. Pictureque shopes surrounded by mountains and engulfed in fall colors pretty much sums it up. We had the place almost to ourselves the first few days before the weekend started, and then it began to fill up. It was Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday, so quite a few people came for the weekend.

Food was rather expensive, so we opted to cook most of our meals ourself. Here, Kristin is about to benefit from my spectacular breakfast-making skills!

More casual biking around town..

All in all, it was a great trip. It was wonderful to see Kristin again and to enjoy the great outdoors!

Another week, another set of pictures! We start out with Monday nights at the Open door. Here is one of the girls, Lanaya, showing off the card she made.





















Next up, dinner and dessert with some friends. It's always nice to get together! Actually, it was a whole week full of food. Tuesday, french sandwhiches and dessert...




















Friday, Mediterranean downtown, and then later Keys on Main (a piano bar). It's amazing how talented some people are!





















Saturday evening I took adavantage of the fall weather with a pie-making party. It was a lot of mess and a ton of fun! It's so much more enjoyable baking with a bunch of people. Angie, our leader, meant business - no pansies in the kitchen allowed!

Little Judah, learning to crawl..

Monday morning was a cold one here in Utah. With such frosty weather and dark skies, it was hard for me to get going in the morning! My car thought so too, and I ended up taking the bus to work. Turns out the battery needed to be replaced, so I got a female friend to take me home and help jump-start my car. Neither of us knew how but we probably could have figured it out. However, we used the easier method. For anyone out there reading this that haven't figured out the simplest way to jump-start a car (perhaps you haven't had the opportunity to be a single female), I will provide instructions: 1) If car is movable, park it in a high-trespass area, preferably near a large pick-up. 2) Open hood 3) Hold spark plugs, one in each hand. 4). Look slightly puzzled. 5) wait for guy to ask how he can help. Generally, this will take less than a minute.

Seriously though, I really do appreciate the people out there willing to help out a stranger. Even though it would be good for me to figure it out myself, I dont' feel very confident at it. I have a somewhat serious goal of taking a "car mechanics for Dummy's" class sometime to improve my car skills. I think it would be well worth the money!

Tonight, packing my bags! I'm heading to British Columbia tomorrow! The weather could be just about anything, so I'm packing half my wardrobe! Speaking of which, I had better get going. Not much time, and a lot more cramming!