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.

you would prosper

Back in Ms. Bestor's 10th grade English class, I did a presentation on fortune cookies. I researched the history, superstitions, and even learned how to make them. Since then, you could say I take them very seriously.

A few months back a drug rep brought our office in some Chinese food for lunch. I picked my fortune cookie at the end of my meal. The following was revealed to me:

I immediately taped this golden nugget up at my desk at work. I read it's prophecy daily. Conveniently enough I would be applying for the Nursing program at UVU about a month later - so I could really put this to the test soon enough.

I turned in my nursing application on April 10th. The application period didn't end until May 15th, and additionally it would take another month after that for any results. If anything was going to try my impatience and make me stronger, this was going to be it.

For the first month and a half of waiting I got through unscathed. But by the beginning of June I had become somewhat of a nervous wreck. Each morning would play out the same way. I would wake up feeling nauseous and the mail would be the first thing I thought. I would feel this way until about 10:30 am when I would call my family and see if the mail had come. When it hadn't, I returned to normal and proceeded okay through the rest of my day.

As you might be able to tell, this became quite exhausting. But one morning I called at my usual time and for the first time said, "Mom, just tell me already that it's not there." I was usually excited and hopeful, but that morning told myself it wasn't there. My mom replied, "There is something here. It's an envelope and it's heavy."

Of course I forced my mom to leave the house immediately and bring this to me at work. It was the longest 15 minutes. She finally arrived and I stepped outside in the hall just in case I had an emotional outburst. The patients can't see that. My shaking fingers finally opened the envelope and this is what I saw:

So I know that I have already publicized this to pretty much everyone, but I thought I should post about one of the greatest things that's happened to me as of late. Besides, I count this as my journal.

I start at the end of next month. I'm pretty much terrified and excited. I'll keep you all updated about what goes down.

quilt queen

So it's the first summer in about three years that I haven't taken classes. Believe me, it's a welcome change. Needless to say I have had a bit more extra time on my hands to pursue some new hobbies.

About two months ago Meg kept on trying to get me to start on a craft. She had started sewing some items, so I thought I would try it as well. Now, I have sewn a number of items in my 23 years, but I have never taken on a big project. I went to Hobby Lobby one night and picked out some fabric - not knowing just what I was getting myself into. Meg showed me a blog that featured a cool way of piecing fabric (http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2008/05/did-you-see-me.html). It's called the crazy nine patch quilt. Take a look for yourself for a brief tutorial.

Anyway, what should have been a nice project that someone might take their time and spend months doing turned into an obsession of sorts. I started sewing like a mad woman. The square pictured above was one of about sixty that I made. I decided I was going to put together a quilt that would fit my queen-size bed.

After I was done making the squares and adding brown borders between each, I finally had the top ready. My good friend and mentor at work, Val, is a domestic genius. I took my quilt to her for the binding. She did what was called "stippling", as pictured above. She did such a beautiful job.

I had brown fabric for the back and then hand-stitched brown for the edges.

And here you see the final product that now rests on my bed. I am quite satisfied with myself.

woman of steel

On Saturday May 16, Nan, my mom, and I participated in American Fork's Woman of Steel Triathlon. I've been preparing/dreading/working for it since January.

Apparently this thing was a big deal. There were about 600 women participating. Outside the American Fork Rec Center they had set up rows and rows of bike racks. Every foot or so they had a name taped to it signifying where you were to put your bike and all your other gear. This was called the Transition Area. Anything you needed for the swim, bike, or run were kept here.

We arrived at 6:30 am to the bustling Rec Center where hundreds of bikes where dangling by racks. I couldn't help but feel nauseated thinking about the impending race. All I could think about was the swim. I kept telling myself if I could just get through the swim, I'd be home-free. We made final preparations such as the staff writing your race number (38) on your arm and your age (23) on your leg. At 8 am everyone headed poolside for the National Anthem.

THE SWIM - It was held in a mere pool, but I was still pretty terrified because, let's be honest, swimming has never been my strong suit. 300 meters doesn't sound like a whole lot, but people, is it. Think of the long length of a pool - and then swimming six laps of that non-stop.

All participants were given a hot pink cap. You didn't have to wear it, but I did because I figured I would disappear into the sea of pink and no one would notice the girl who couldn't swim.

A new swimmer would enter the pool every 12 seconds until every one had gone. As the line grew shorter, I grew less nervous. I realized that a lot of people couldn't swim like me, and that I would be okay. I finally just got out there and basically faked it. My swim took me 9:54. I am pretty proud of that considering I've been convinced the last few months that I would drown.

THE BIKE - When you hop out of the pool, you run back to the transition area and throw on your socks, shoes, helmet, and mount your bike. The bike loop left the Rec Center and took you up into Highland. At the start of the loop, there are these two massive hills (they don't look as such by car, but trust me). My thighs were burning while biking up these hills. But what goes up, must come down. You then made your way to the Alpine Highway which was a nice down hill ride.

The loop obviously returns to the Rec Center, where you do it one more time. The thought of biking those hills again was daunting, but I was excited to get it over with. After loop number two, you've completed 12.4 miles. My bike time was 50:27.

This is Nan completing a bike loop. Her and I rented these sweet road bikes. They're much faster than mountain bikes.

THE RUN - After the biking I quickly returned my bike to the transition racks and threw on my running shoes. My legs felt like noodles. It was a weird sensation trying to run when your legs feel like that.

The running loop followed the bike loop for the most part. We had to run up those hills I mentioned before in the bike loop. Not fun. But the loop cut off earlier than the bike loop and set back toward the Rec Center. The run consisted of three miles. During the run I was so ready to be done and the finish line couldn't have come any sooner. Once back the the Rec Center, they had the red finish line set up and I proudly ran on through. What a relief. My run time was 28:07.

You can barely see me, but there I am running through the finish line.

Once at the finish line, the booths were full of oranges, grapes, apples, cookies, water, chips, salsa - every thing you need to make a full recovery. This was all very welcome.

This is my cool road bike. She got me thru the tough times.

And here is Nan again being her exhibisionist self again. As you can see, she loved her skin-tight TRI shorts.

And my rockin' mom. She encountered a few minor setbacks when we got to the race that morning. As we were walking our bikes on the sidewalks of AF, she walked her bike through a patch of those sticker pokey things. As she gingerly pulled them out, one let out a burst of air. Fortunately there was an awesome dude there you changed out both of her tubes free of charge. Nice guy. She also forgot her race numbers at home. Bummer. But after these trials, she did awesome out there.

Our finishing times (including transtion times) were as follows:

Me - 1:33

Nan - 1:39

Daunetta -1:53

This was a pretty awesome experience. I was dirt tired after, but it was totally worth it. You all can refer to me as a triathlete from now on.

hannah's homecoming

Hannah finally came home on Friday after enjoying her 7 week stay at the hospital.

My bro Bran feeding her in the luxury of the home.

And what we've all been waiting for -- I finally got to hold her! What a good baby. She just kept staring at me. She couldn't believe how beautiful her aunt was.