New Life

Ahh, I'm please to say that Spring is in the air! We had our first snow "storm" since Christmas last week, and it actually made things feel more like Spring! As you can see, there's a promise of flowers outside my window! I feel like my "blahs" are over too. I celebrated by learning how to Salsa dance :). It wasn't nearly has difficult as I always thought it would be. I thought the basics were actually quite a bit easier than swing. It's most certainly been on my list of "things I never thought I would do" list. My high school 10 year reunion is coming up this year, and it has made me reflect on my life since then, and how different it is from what I would have predicted. I'm pretty sure that, if I had been told as a high school senior to specifically predict where I'd be and what kinds of things I'd do, I would have gotten only 2 things on the list correct (I went to college and ran a marathon - actually, two marathons but who's counting). Here's a few things I never would have guessed... living in Utah (I'm pretty sure it would have been at least my 45th guess about which state I'd be in)..my job (hadn't heard of Child Life yet).. my travel experiences (Papua New Guinea is where??)..learning to rock climb and becoming proficient at a team sport (In Iowa, rock climbing is a little obscure, and my junior high sport endeavers were legendarily laughable).. learning to dance (where I come from, the "lawn sprinkler" is considered quite respectable).. repeated nominations for church deacon (I seem to remember several spirited classes discussing the appropriatness of such a position for females).. several interviews for the local news channel and my name in the Washington Post (although I am proud to say I made several entrees into the Sioux Center news growing up :).. and many other adventures too complex to describe here! Sometimes at the hospital I work with high school students who missed out on several typical life experiences because of their cancer. For them, understandably, it feels like the end of their world. I sometimes wish, though, that they could understand how much life there is after graduation. I never imagined how interesting life would be!

Another exciting event this week was the birth of my close friends' baby girl. I spent most of the day at the hospital on Wednesday cuddling this sweet little bundle. I'm looking foward to watching her grow!

I've posted a couple of pictures on this before, but I thought it was time to take a couple of pictures from the Open Door, the place I volunteer, again since it's a part of my weekly routine. Here, we are making the ever popular clay objects. It's always hard to get a picture or two in, because there's rarely a calm moment! We're looking foward to warm weather again, so that we can let the kids have a little bit more space outside!

Yet another highlight of the week was going down to St George for the weekend with a few friends. We went to a Colby Caillat concert, stayed up half the night chatting, went shopping, and watched a few chick flicks. A true girls' weekend away!

Looking foward to another fun-filled week ahead! :)

slump

yes, I'm in a slump. It's the middle of winter and not much is happening. Blah, blah, blah, blah blah. I've made quite a few plans over the past couple of weeks, but quite a few of them were canceled. I have to admit, my picture taking has taken a nose dive, so I haven't done a good job of recording what I have done. Somebody (besides my mom, who has told me this frequently) needs to give me a call and tell me to step it up! :) It's that time of the year where it's time for winter to be done, but it's not yet. We in Utah haven't really had snow on the ground since Christmas (the midwest and east is hogging it all :), so it's been ugly brown for months now.
Good news though: I saw my first tulip shoots this week! The promise of green is here! I also have several fun plans for the next few weeks, so hopefully my blogs will become more interesting again soon.

Here are a couple of pictures of one thing that I did this week - since I went to the Utah State football game this fall, I decided to continue being a fan and got to a basketball game as well. Turns out there isn't a box for basketball, but it was fun to sit with the crowd. They are known for their school spirit, which made the game a lot of fun! It brought so many memories of highschool state basketball! Plus, since I came with the president's daughter and because the game didn't start until 10 in Logan, we got to have a little slumber party in the president's mansion after the game. Somehow, the fun of getting a few girls into a room together to talk all night doesn't get duller with age! I'm excited that I get to do it again next week with a trip to St George for a concert, and then again 2 weeks after that for a woman's retreat!

"the prez" and his daughter

Me pretending to be a "very important person deep in thought over very important matters" at the desk in our room.

Winter

It's still the middle of winter, and I'm still feeling a little blah. However, I was able to get out and about a bit over the past couple of weeks. I felt like I was in a movie while skating at the Gallivan center downtown - how many films have a scene where the main characters are skating in an outdoor rink in the middle of the city? I can think of at least ten! Only thing I was missing was Jake Gyllenhaal at my side! :)

Also this week: yet another baby shower! We have three Emily's on our 25 person Child Life staff, and all three are pregnant right now! We're gonna have a lot of baby boys crawling around in a year!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of my lovely intern, appropriately getting drink refills (yes, I really do make her refill my water cup regularly at work! I figure that, between all the work I put in to grade her papers, teach her seminars, and provide practical experience for her, I deserve it! :) I don't think she minds too much, as it gives her a chance to NOT follow me around like a little puppy dog for a few minutes each day.

Just a short blog post today. It's the middle of January, and pretty much nothing exciting is going on. After traveling so much in December, though, it amost feels good to grind back into the ho-hum of daily life.

I have had fun trying out a couple of new Christmas presents. What could be more fun (and tasty) than a mini fondue party? What's your favorite thing to dip into chocolate?

Also had some fun trying out other people's Christmas gifts. Nothing like a wii to bring people together. I predict that, 10 years from now, wii sports will be remembered as the "duck hunt" of our generation. Ahh, fond memories!

In case any of you non-Utahns are feeling sorry for yourself, I'll include this picture in my blog. Yes, this is what Salt Lake considers to be a "bad air" day. In other words, SMOG. Ick! Looks like the backdrop of a "green earth" political commercial, doesn't it? Looking foward to a really good snowstorm to clear it out! In the meantime, it's best to head up to the mountains whenever possible!

Yes, Salt Lake definately has its pros and cons. Smog is a con, but it is matched by a pro: we are a prime location to get into the Olympic spirit! The world cup ariel and ski competition was held in Park City this weekend. What will be $5oo a ticket a month from now in Vancouver was free here. It was fun to see several Olympic athletes heading down the slopes here. Here is my first video I've ever put in my blog. My apologies for its direction though - I forgot that video's can't be flipped around after filming, so you're gonna either have to turn your computer to its side or turn yourself on your side to watch!

christmas 09

Every family has their own snippets of Christmas that they think is wonderful. Well, here is a glimpse into my Christmas this year..



I feel very blessed to have been able to get home at all with the huge snowstorm we had all week. It was certainly a very white Christmas!























Even more amazing, everybody in my family was able to come home as well. It was fun to see my niece and nephew again. They grow a lot in between the times I see them!



Here's Ethen, getting a little appetizer before Christmas dinner. He's a little chunk, weighing in at about 22 pounds at 8 months. He's easy to take pictures of cuz he's always got a smile on his face!



















And here's Abby - her first Christmas old enough to really enjoy it!











Unfortunately, I was sick again for much of the visit, especially Christmas day and and Eve. Along with the last virus I caught, I've now been sick for an entire month, and I'm sick of being sick! My New Year's resolution? Good health!

Aside from camping out in a lazy boy with a box of Kleenex, here's a few other happenings of the week..


My first-ever true attempt at a gingerbread house! Turned out pretty good, I'd say. Thanks to my bro and sis the engineering aspect of it!







Aww grandpa, enough already!

nothing like childlike wonder in front of the christmas tree..

unless you count not-so-little childlike wonder!

According to Abby, all stickers belong on the tummy!

uh, guys? guys? a little help here..

I hope your holidays were wonderful as well! Happy New Year!

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.