pictures for chad

Sorry, once again I am placing random pictures on here so I can email them to my brother.

bah, humbug

Listen, I love Christmas. I love the Christmas season. Just not in November.

A long time ago when I worked at a certain Robert's Arts and Crafts, I was the Seasonal Department Head. This meant I was rummaging through Christmas shipments in July. They also would turn on the Christmas music in September as a ploy to get people to shop earlier. It turned me off, to say the least.

Now, I work at Legacy OB-GYN. I thought I was free of the early Christmas stuff. But to no avail, my co-workers love listening to Christmas music early. Last year it was October-early, this year it's only Novemeber-early.

I have stated my objections, but they all seem to laugh and turn the music up louder. The last straw came today when I arrived this morning to find this:

In an effort to get me in the Christmas spirit, they decked out my desk. Thanks guys.

Why isn't there Thanksgiving music?

wolverine green

I've received numerous requests (okay, just Deelisa), to write a little something about my adventures in nursing school. First off, take notice of this classy uniform. We are required to wear hunter green scrubs, a UVU white patch sewn on left sleeve, a name badge, and clean white shoes. Not adhering to these demands will land you in trouble (aka being denied clinical rounds).


I took this picture today after my second clinical at Orem Nursing and Rehab. If you've never worked or visited a nursing home, you're missing out. It's quite a treat.

Some highlights thus far in Semester 1:

>Coming to class with swimsuits under our scrubs so we could give each other bed-baths.

>Learned how to catheterize male and female dummies. Real life.

>Laid on a table-top with my entire abdomen exposed for a good 20 minutes while a complete stranger stared at it.

>Cleaned fake wounds on the "Seymour Butts". Seriously, that's the name of the fake bum.

>Wrote a three-page paper on rectal suppositories. Good read if you're interested.

I really have enjoyed this first semester. But I am already on a graduation countdown. I am now telling people that I have 2.5 years left instead of 3. April 2012 is a bright goal in my future. In any event, so far, so good.

start spreading the news

It's been a heart-wrenching nine years since my Yankees have been on top. It's a myth that Yankees fans have life easy. On the contrary, it tends to be rough. Imagine, having a team that comes with such high hopes, only to fall short each post-season.

But 2009 brought us new fortune. Finally we could see a team that really had chemistry; something that had been lacking in recent years. All the money in the world can only go so far - you need chemistry in the end.

Even more exciting, I was able to witness my first Yankee's game in person. This has been years in the making. Seeing them in August only made me that much more excited for the post-season. I knew that the Yankees had something special this season.

And so it was, on Wednesday November 4th, the Yankees beat out the Phillies to win their 27th World Series. That's right folks, I got to see 2009 World Champions live and in person. I'll be telling this one to the grandkids.

Disclaimer: If you're not familiar, after each Yankees game they play Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York". Hence the title, "Start spreading the news..." Listen to it; it's a good song.

i want to be a part of it

Exactly a month ago I was in the Big Apple. I thought I better finally post a bit about it.

I'm the only one in family who hasn't been to New York. So one day I pulled up the New York Yankee schedule and found a weekend where they were playing the Red Sox. I told my mom that was the weekend for us, and we started the planning.

On Wednesday August 5th, my mom, Ally, Kellye, Kathy, Tara, Coy and I headed out on the red eye to the City-So-Nice-They-Named-It-Twice.

Tara and me in front of a NYPD cruiser. I have an odd fascination for the NYPD. It must be all the TV I watch. Also, me at Central Park. Because I didn't have my Chaco's on, I was not able to scale this rock.

Unfortunately Dave was on a hiatus during our stay or we would have seen his show. Also, refer to the previous post about Glenn Beck. Radio City, as shown above, is where he broadcasts.

Wallstreet Bull. Also, Tara, me, mom, and Ally in front of a tiny Statue of Liberty.

Are you all familiar with the movie "National Treasure"? The church where they find the treasure is pictured above. Trinity Church. I love that movie.

We took a ferry to Staten Island. We sailed out at sunset and got a good look at the Statue of Liberty.

On our way back to the City, it was dark (not pictured) and the Manhatten skyline was awesome.

My love for the NYPD apparent again. Also, Tara, my mom, and I got up early one morning and walked Central Park and found the Good Morning American concert series. It was IDOL morning. We saw in concert Adam Lambert, Kris Allen, and David Cook.

They weren't kidding about those giant NY rats.

A nice sales woman at Tiffany's let me try on this diamond ring. Any guesses at it's price tag?? Only $400,000!!!

Now, to the main event. I am a lifelong Yankees fan, and a lifelong Red Sox hater. As I got off the Subway to the Yankee Stadium, I felt as if I was making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. The feeling in the air amongst all the other fans was electric. I had goosebumps and felt like I had finally come home.

We caught the game on Friday night. It turned into an old-fashioned pitcher's duel. The game was completely scoreless until in the 15th inning, Alex Rodriguez hit a home run bring Derek Jeter in. We won with a score of 2 - 0. It was amazing.

This was a really awesome trip. New York really is a cool place to visit. Refer to post Only In Dreams and you see just how long I've waited to make this trip. And to have my Yankees sweep the Sox was just icing on the cake.

hello you sick twisted freaks

Every weekday at 5 pm, I get in my car and I tune my AM radio dial to 570 KNRS. I love to listen to Glenn Beck on my way home for about 20 minutes. He is a voice of reason amid a turbulent liberal storm that is raging across America.

I due have a problem though. When I get off my exit on 800 North in Orem, I have to travel under the overpass of the freeway for about, um, maybe four seconds. I don't know about the AM radio's in your cars, but in my car, any bridge or overpass interference leaves me with complete radio static. It's terrible. You wouldn't think this would cause too many problems - but it surely does.

I am always completely enveloped with his topic of choice. I need to hear every sentence; every word. But everyday I'll be listening along and something like this happens, "And so, the most important thing you can do is [caaaaaaaaa]." Or, "And my final, and most important point is [caaaaaaaa]." Or, "You wouldn't believe what that Socialist (commonly our President) said next [caaaaaa]." I dread overpasses.

But I am excited to report a breakthrough. As I was listening yesterday, Glenn announced that they are now on the FM dial. I looked to the skies and praised the heavens above. I changed my station and then came to the overpass. No interference. Best day ever.

So now folks, you can enjoy listening to him too on 105.7 FM.

bbq / baby blessing

This weekend we had a BBQ up Provo Canyon to celebrate my sister-in-law Stacey's birthday and also Hannah's blessing.

Nephew Cole. With his mischevious smile.

Hannah and me waiting for Bran to finish at the grill so we can eat.

Ally, Hannah, and Kim.

Stacey blowing out the candles.

Dad and Hannah.

Pulled out my old volleyball skills. Which are pretty much non-existent. Check out my sweet underhand serve.

Hannah by the river. She likes to stick her tongue out at people lately.

Cole by the Provo River.

Stacey, Bran and Hannah after her blessing.

She was all tuckered out.

Havasupai 2009

Here are some pictures from our trip to Havasupai in July.

On the trail. 10 miles in. The hike in went very smooth for us. We hiked the whole thing in about 4 hours. When you hike with Jordan, you're forced to book it.

I love this bridge. When you reach it, you know you're getting close to the Village. Check out my knee brace. It saved me.

It was SO HOT that we resorted to putting this table in the water. We had to eat all of our hot meals in the pool table.

Amy was met with some blisters on her way in. I did an okay job taping her back up. Hopefully I'll get better in the next 3 years.

Back 3 years ago in Kauai, I was constantly doing scary things: jumping off waterfalls, going off of high rope swings, etc. But now in my old age, this seems to be all that I can handle. I've lost my edge.

Amy shot this priceless photo during one of our photo shoots. If only I was a senior in high school I could use this as my Senior pic. Dang.

Hiking down the river to Beaver Falls.

Jordan, Tawny, Graham, Alex, Hazen, and Ana in front of Mooney Falls.

Alex jumping off Beaver.

And here's a video of Jordan jumping off Beaver. I guess I was too dumb to figure out how to flip this video, so turn your head sideways if you want to watch.

Found these by Graham's things. I pocketed them.

One of the many falls on our way to Beaver Falls.

The boys climbed up the face of this little falls. It was quite a challenge.

I didn't take any pictures of the hike out because, well, quite frankly I wanted to die. We left a little after midnight on Saturday morning. Along the trail, Alex and I were feeling quite sick. At one point Graham told me to take a bite of a Clif Bar to see if that would help. So I put a small morsel upon my tongue and immediately started to dry heave. It wasn't pretty. So, as you can imagine it was pretty grueling. I think we were just so exhausted, sleep deprived, and dehydrated. But we made it out alive (barely).

It was an awesome trip - aside from the Grand Canyon heat.