whirlwind

My blogs have been a bit sparse lately for good reason. Three things have dominated my life over the past couple of weeks, and my life has been a whirlwind! First, the above picture has become a very common sight for me each morning and afternoon, and Primary Children's has barred me from its parking structure. No, I did not start a fight or drive 60mph through the garage.. the hospital has been having a parking crunch for several years and they are slowly kicking employees out to make room for patients and families. I can't complain as long if it really is for patients and families, but it does significantly add to my commute! It takes almost twice as long now as it used to. Therefore, I decided that it was time to pursue my options in living closer to work. To my surprise, after talking to 2 people, I had 4 offers! I've settled on a nice little house with a big backyard in a perfect neighborhood. I'm excited to move! I unfortunately have yet to start packing though, because I've been gone every night. To complicate the matter, my car won't pass the Utah safetly regulations for registration (don't even get me started on this, it makes me very cranky!). I've spent 3 full days in the car shop this week, and my car is not yet fixed!!!). Not fun on the bank account either :(
Anyway, here is a picture of my new house. I'm sure I will follow it up with many more soon!

I'm going to have to briefly sum up the past few weeks.. but I don't want to skip out on Easter. It's one of my favorite holidays (even though it snowed this year here!). Our church likes to really celebrate the day. Below is one of our traditions during worship - we all bring flowers and add it to the cross and lay it at the feet. It may sound kind of funny, but I really enjoy it!

Of course, even a snowy Easter must come with an Easter egg hunt and egg decorating, and I managed to get that in too! Actually, I had to boil 5 dozen eggs for the place I volunteer and we only used a few of them, so I had my fill of eggs that week. You could say I figured out how many eggs I can eat in a week before the sight of them makes me sick :)

These next pictures are just brief, random glimpses of situations while hanging out with my friends..hopefully some of them will make you laugh..

Really enjoying dinner at the Blue Plate Diner!

Are you a failure? Would you like to learn how to fail better? Come to First Congregational at 11am!

Krystal and her really big balloon..

On a final note, I'd like to leave you with a funny coincidence at work. There's a doctor there who recently got married. Her married name? Dr. Jacklynn Hyde. Always a good one to have at the hospital!

I've been trying all winter to convince various friends to go cross country skiing with me. I have never gone, and thought it sounded like fun. Unfortunately, everybody else seemed to think that the sport was "a lame second to REAL skiing" or too much work for a Saturday afternoon. "pphaww" is what I say. True that it doesn't have the adrenaline of downhill, but it's 10 times cheaper, which makes me a fan! And no, it's not that much work. My 6 month pregnant friend Emily did it with no problems. So there.

I really did think it was a lot of fun. We spent the day at a cabin and had a gorgeous day with the forest all to ourselves all all the hot chocolate we wanted in between excersions. It was a little more skill that I initially expected, so we a fair bit of time the first while on our seats. Good thing the landing was so soft!

I've had the pleasure of spending several weekends in a row up at cabins in the mountains. Last weekend my church had a woman's retreat up near Heber, on another beautiful weekend. Below is a picture of the cabin. I would love to rent something like that out again sometime with a bunch of friends or family, so if your interested, let me know :). The best part to me was the hot tub under the stars. Living in the city, I hardly ever see them, and I almost forget about them sometimes. Out there though, they were incredibly clear!

snowshoing with a few ladies from church..

And hanging out a bit last week with cute little Nora..

I hate to end this blog on a tirade, but I would like to take a moment to tell the world that living in a city is NOT as covenient as living in a small town, contrary to popular opinion. The stores are huge, you have to DRIVE to them, and they are always out of things! Every time I go to Walmart, I end up making multiple trips because they never have everything I need. What a waste of time! I couldn't resist taking this picture since it shows just what I'm talking about. And no, there was not a big, irresistable sale on these items that cleared them out. It was this way last time I went to get this product too. Maybe I'll have success next week.. sigh..

Oh, I don't have to end it on a sour note! I have one more picture! I also went to the Lava Hot Springs in Idaho last weekend. Yay for hot springs and random road trips!

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!