Lisa Louise

Fight for Air Climb!

2012-02-01T08:58:00.001-08:00

Ok I know I haven't blogged in a bit, more to come on Christmas (maybe).

In other more important news I am participating again in the Fight for Air Climb! This is a fundraiser put on by the American Lung Association of Utah every year. The money raised goes to help fight for clean air, and also supports Camp Wyatt (which I help with every summer!!).

If you can please pledge some money to my climb, my goal is to climb the Wells Fargo Building (23 floors) 10 times! Thanks for your help!

I promise to post embarrassing pictures of me during said climb, wouldn't it be more fun to see me suffer if you knew you had donated to the cause?!

Thanksgiving and December happenings

2011-12-20T12:27:00.001-08:00

This year my family actually had two thanksgiving dinners. My Western Grandparents were actually up here in Herriman so we had Western Thanksgiving with a very small representation of the giant Western Family (only 3 of my Dad's siblings were there out of the 11) which of course meant there were still probably 30 or so people there. Uncle Sam made yummy Ruth's Chris sweet potato casserole, oh my gosh, delicious. I want to curl up and die in that stuff!

After getting to spend some time with the Western's we then headed south to Alpine and had another dinner with the Karren's (mom's side). The food was fantastic and it was great to be able to see my Karren Grandparents that day too!! As well as wonderful aunts, uncles and cousins of course. I am so spoiled to be able to have had the day off of work and get to see all four grandparents in one day!

The very next week Jessica, her cute daughter Olivia and I went to the Festival of Trees. I love to try and go every year, especially since I work at Primary's and all the money goes to funding things at Primary's! One of the trees was dedicated to a sweet little boy I got to take care of for a few months (who is now at home with his parents!!!), and some of the trees were dedicated to babies that have passed away that I helped care for as well.

Just a few nights ago Mom and I went to Ballet West's performance of The Nutcracker. I have lived in Salt Lake my whole life and had never seen that before! Loved it!! Funny enough no one else in our family wanted to join us, hmm perhaps they are just lacking in sophistication :)

Looking forward to the rest of this fun Christmas season, I can't believe Christmas is only a few days away! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

California in November!

2011-12-17T15:19:00.000-08:00

I had an opportunity to go see my friend Ali in Souther Cal before thanksgiving. So much fun! We managed to spend a day at Disneyland, can I just say that disneyland at Christmas time is so awesome! The whole park is decked out to the max, amazing!! Getting to see Ali all weekend was way fun too. We went to disneyland, went out with one of her roommates to an LA Kings game, and all in all had a very fun weekend.

The castle looks like a gingerbread house

The Haunted Mansion goes "Nightmare Before Christmas" from Halloween through Christmas

Such a fun ride this way!

Love the Tower of Terror

It's A Small World decked out for Christmas!

Ali at Small World

The Castle at night!

Vegas Ragnar

2011-12-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

Alright I have been a total slacker on updating the blog. So three weeks after my marathon I ran the Vegas Ragnar with a few of the same people from the Wasatch Back (Mom, Kati, Rebeckah, Whitney, and Terry) and some new friends too! We had a great time, Kati rocked the Ragnar Mountain (10 miles, the one I did last year) and everyone else did a great job too. That makes 6 Ragnars total for me, woot!

Van 2 getting ready to Run!

Kati getting us started!

crappy quality due to the dark, but proof that we really do stay up all night!

yay all done!

Good Job Team!

pathetic

2011-10-26T22:48:00.000-07:00

You know you have a problem when...

1. you look at a friends blog of baby pics and wonder immediately, why is that kid's leg so mottled!?

2. holding a friends baby you automatically check out their scalp, arms and legs for good IV sites

and

3. holding said friend's baby you want to re-swaddle them in my "no escape burrito wrap"

these are just a few of my idiosyncrasies, my brain is already shutting down for the night (scary considering I still have 7 more hours here at work) so that is all I can think of.

Ragnar Las Vegas pics and details to come! It was awesome as per usual of course!

Farewell

2011-10-14T00:26:00.001-07:00

My family is putting fat Harvey to sleep today. He has arthritis and diabetes and is miserable. I know it is silly but I'm a little sad. Enjoy kitty heaven Harv!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:N 1900 E,Salt Lake City,United States

St. George Marathon

2011-10-02T19:05:00.000-07:00

I ran the St. George Marathon this weekend, so much fun! It was definitely the best organized race I have run except for maybe the disneyland half. I ran the first half with my friend from work Jen but then she was just too fast for me.

Waiting at the start, it was a little chilly. thanks DI for warm clothes I could just ditch and not worry about hehe

this was at about 15.5 miles, still feeling pretty good!

Now at almost 24 miles, I could smell that finish!

Yes, another awesome medal...and a new PR 4:39:56

Me and Mom.

It was a great race now I'm a bit sore and my foot is hurting in a way it hasn't before so I may have to take a few days off before I can start running again to train for...Vegas Ragnar of course!

don't be shocked

2011-09-16T15:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, I baked. I have a few days off from work hallelujah and decided to try this pumpkin spice bread. Now before you are too impressed, it's just a box mix from cosco. But it tastes pretty good, now the problem is I keep eating it.

Yes I also caved and got the instagram app, it is sort of fun hehe. In other news my marathon is only 2 weeks away, woo!

Summertime

2011-08-31T01:36:00.000-07:00

Sadly I have no photos from Asthma Camp this year, it was a blast as usual...and exhausting as usual. If you are facebookers you can go to the American Lung Association in Utah page and see what camp was like. This year the theme was Game Shows, the kids loved it!

Two weeks after camp was the Deseret News Marathon. This was my second marathon and I'll be the first to admit I wasn't very well trained. Hehe it was so much easier to sleep in than get up and run far! My mom has any pics of me running it so those will have to wait, I know all three of you are disappointed. Ok so this race goes from the top of Big Mountain (take the east canyon exit on I-80) from there you run down, then up and over little mountain into Emigration Canyon, run all the way down and then run south behind Hogle Zoo along wasatch drive until I-215, then run north along Foothill Drive until it meets with 1300 East, north until South Temple, South to the parade (24th of July Days of '47 Parade) and finally finish in Liberty Park. Quite the route, very tough on the legs and can be very hot. I lucked out and it was overcast that day! My sweet mom ran the last 3 miles with me, a godsend for sure. My roomies were on the course to cheer me on and my aunt Cathy and her family were also there to support me, I'm so lucky. Final time was 4:49, a little slower than the Top of Utah last fall but definitely a harder course!

August has been such a blur, I can't believe it is gone. A few highlights though, Shawn is 18 and headed into his Senior year. I am yet again training for another Marathon. The St. George Marathon is Oct 1 eek! I'm excited but nervous. There is something extremely satisfying in finishing this crazy distance. I did a 19 miler tonight down little cottonwood canyon along wasatch drive all the way to my house, and while I might be extremely tired now I am also very pleased I can do this. As long as this is still fun for me I will keep doing it, or until my knees give out hehe.

Ragnar 2011

2011-08-16T20:38:00.001-07:00

Back in June I ran the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay for the 4th year in a row with Mom and friends! Such a fun race, but oh so tiring. Can't wait to do the Vegas Ragnar again this fall!

Van One at the Start

I was runner 12 this year, pretty fun hill/mtn up to Snow Basin

Spencer in the Van, he is so patient with all women on our team.

Kati says this shows our personalities, me being cheesy, beckah being cute and kati dreaming she was running as fast as a kenyan (as it says on her head band). This is at East Canyon waiting for our 2nd leg

We took no picture overnight, now getting ready for leg 3!

Van 2 at the cabin before leg 3!

Mom and I awe cute

being supportive for our fellow runners

The sisters who conquered Guardsman this year!

Snow at the top, so nuts!

Beckah, Kati and I

The Whole team at the end minus Katie M, she had to leave. Such a fun time, can't wait for year 5 next year. Yes we are already signed up.

Maui with the girls

2011-08-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

Ok so I have been a complete slacker and now it is time to play catch up! I went to Maui in May with 3 of my girl friends from work, such a blast!! We stayed in my parents condo in Kahana and had a great time! We snorkeled, did the sunrise bike ride down Haleakala, I got to Scuba Dive while the girls snorkeled one day, and lots of yummy food and beach time. Such a wonderful relaxing trip, is it time to go back yet?

The Beach by our condo

Sunrise!

Getting ready to ride.

We rode all the way down to this beach!

Rented scooters for a day

Me getting ready to dive, girl getting ready to snorkle the Molokini Crater

Yay I love diving

Slaughter House Beach

At our Luao (spelling??).

California Family Fun

2011-06-08T20:42:00.000-07:00

Back in April my family went on a road trip to California, by far on of the best times we've all had together. We drove down, all around and back. The boys claimed I kept the car extremely cold, all I have to say is better that the cold air is blowing on my face than me barfing!

Shamu!

Awe cute family

My brothers cracked me up this whole trip. Shawn's comment after disneyland was "I didn't think you could do almost every ride twice in one day at Disneyland and California Adventure, until I went with Lisa"

Shawn is so odd

yes we fit four adults with LONG legs in one teacup

a mandatory picture, Shawn and I had our pic taken here when we came back in '96 pre Stephen

Thanks Grizzly River Rapids

Getting ready for the 45 min wait for Toy Story Mania, totally worth it!

I love how Shawn has his Aviators on, goof

Gotta have some Ice cream on the way out!

helping stephen get in the water

I had no idea they were making a face, figures.

awe cute posing at the Zoo!

Lots of walking ALL over the zoo, who said you can't see it all in one day? Challenge...ACCEPTED and COMPLETED.

At the Mormon Batallion History Center

looking for gold

Family trip to the Temple

Ali visited us one morning!

again, what a goof.
All in all a fabulous trip, I hope we can go on another one before Shawn goes on a mission/away to college! Next up, my epic Maui trip with 3 awesome girls!

Life

2011-05-03T22:24:00.000-07:00

Well, sometimes things just don't happen the way you wanted them to. More later but I am not in a mood to divulge more information.

Also, pics to come of the family vacation to California. so much fun!! Enjoy the wonderful spring weather we are finally having!

Canyonlands Half Marathon

2011-03-26T23:49:00.000-07:00

It must be turning into spring, because I've already got one half marathon under my belt for 2011. This half also happened to be my 5th one so far, more to come this year don't worry. So Kati got into the lottery for this race. Since I didn't get in initially I paid the big bucks to get a charity spot. Fortunately for both of us my coworker Travis had also gotten in and had the sense of mind to book a hotel room early, so the three of us traveled down to Moab together last weekend to run this race!

about to get on the bus

waiting FOREVER at the top to start running, we got bussed up at 7:30am but the race didn't start until 10

no more warm clothes, the are all in a bag headed down the canyon now. Yes I ran in the trash bag for a solid mile.

Woo mile 11, out of the canyon. I carried my camera with me, totally worth it!

Finished! 2:16:45 not my best time but not my worst! Also not a horrible time conidering there was a 25 mph head wind the entire way down the canyon.

Hurray we all finished. I don't have any pics of Travis or Kati running because they are too fast for me!

Fight for Air Climb 2011

2011-03-05T13:33:00.001-08:00

It's that time of year again! The Fight for Air Climb (formerly Tackle the Tower), a fund raising event for the American Lung Association. I didn't raise much money personally but there is still time, if you'd like to donate click here. A lot of the money goes towards the Asthma camp I help with every year.

Definitely still climb 1, not dripping yet haha!

Time 2 or 3?

ran into my cousin Katie!

Pretty sure this was only the first time up, I climbed all 23 flights 6 times!
It was a great day for a climb, maybe next year i'll do a solid 10 times!

Yes I do exist!

2011-02-07T03:48:00.000-08:00

I've been more than a bit absent from my blog. I always feel like I should post pictures of what I've been doing lately. Then I'm not home when I actually get around to posting. Also, life is just too dang awesome to be blogging about it right now :) Hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day, I anticipate mine will be great!!! Well the weekend prior to it will be awesome :) since I work Valentine's night, oh well! More details to come...eventually!!

New Year, more stuff

2011-01-14T23:14:00.000-08:00

Christmas was great as per usual. It was just our family for the morning which is sort of a wierd thing for us. Normally an aunt or uncle or friend is always there too! My fam wasn't even up when I got home from working Christmas Eve night so I look a little 30 min cat nap before Stephen got up and then proceeded to get us all up. I love that he is still excited about Christmas, he's 14 and I'm sure it will start to fade but for now it's so fun. We spent the evening with extended family in Alpine and ate delicious food as I'm sure many of you all did as well!

Managed to get some great ski days in over the past few weeks, I LOVE ALTA!! I was skiing on New Years Eve Day in the Supreme Bowl through some freaking fantastic chutes that then open up into a greater bowl area. The snow was nice and soft with a few inches of powder, the only downside was it was -8 degrees brr!

Now that the New Year is here I've been trying to figure out what races I should do. I can't do my usual Salt Lake Half because of a trip so I'm thinking maybe a half in March, a Half sponsored by the American Lung Association in June and the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay again (of course!!). From there I'm thinking of doing the Des News 24th of July Marathon, the course is tough but I feel like it might be right up my alley. After that the Provo River Trail Half in August again and either Top of Utah Marathon or St. George Marathon (if I can get in) and to finish in November the New York Marathon (but also only if I get in). Anyone want to join me?? It's looking like another great year of races, now I just need to start running a little more regularly than I am currently. New Years resolutions have never really been my thing, but I suppose if I were to have one it's to run at least 2 marathons plus my usual ragnar and 2-3 more halfs. Here goes Running 2011!

Stay-at-home-who???

2010-12-15T01:27:00.000-08:00

As I sit through one of the LONGEST nights shifts to date, my patients are stable and I'm bored, I came across a startling trend. Perhaps I'm just behind the times but has anyone else heard about the "Stay-at-home-Daughters"? I was reading a site I actually really enjoy here and started reading some of the comments about a feminism post (see Duty to Parents? post) that led me down the SAHD path. I was thoroughly shocked to find out that this is becoming a more normal trend within conservative christian homes. People like the Duggars (don't even get me started on my issues with that family) etc have made this whole life seem normal and even aspirational. So apparantly the job of a SAHD is to stay at home, forsake education and devote themselves to their fathers (until they're given to husbands, of course) (read this). I was raised in the post-feminist era and as such I of course find this whole movement utterly ridiculous. After reading that last link which is a very biased anti view of the whole "SAHD movement" I decided to go to the source and see what was being sad. Venturing onto this site I tooled around it for a few hours reading various posts, becoming more disturbed with each post I read. Partly because I've heard versions of these ideas touted to me through non other than MY church too. I'm mostly refering to this post in which a reader writes to these two SAHD about what to do about going to College. The SAHD answer the poor girl referencing scriptures etc to say basically trust in the Lord, find some way to help your future husband from home and that that may or may not be something you need a degree for. "But even a degree will not guarantee security, any more than not owning a degree will guarantee poverty". Talk about setting the whole feminist movement back about 70 years. I'm a firm believer in education for ALL, man, woman, black, white, purple, whatever. Teaching that it is ok to perhaps not go to college and just learn how to wash dishes, raise kids, and keep a home is not all that these SAHD (or ANYONE for that matter) should be learning. Even creepier is how all the SAHD seem to revere whatever decisions their parents are making for them, saying things like Father knows best etc. I'm sorry but how does that equip them to handle life when it doesn't happen the way you think it's going to?

I've seen this within my church as well, not to the same extreme by any means. I vividly remember sitting in Young Women's being taught that it was important to get an education...sounds good right? Then having that statement being followed up with, because it's good to have something to fall back on. Now I know this isn't the official stance of my church, this is just Mormon Subculture talking for the most part, but it still drives me crazy. I'm curious if anyone else grew up being taught like this as well? Fortunately I was raised in a home that emphasized the importance of getting a college education (for real reasons, i.e. getting a job, to learn more, etc) and now thanks to that I have a great job that I love. What happens to the other girls though? Who thought, I'll have a loving husband and never need any real education? What happens the these SAHD in varied conservative christian lives who then have the unthinkable happen-whether that be never getting married, having their husbands die, or cheat or leave? Then you have a whole group of girls who can't do much of anything other than keep a household??? I feel like there is a serious problem here.

Go Utes!

2010-12-06T13:17:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We went down to Las Vegas as soon as I got off work thursday morning to spend the weekend with my Mom's side of the family. The food was delicious, the company was great and all in all it was a fun weekend. I flew home that saturday morning so that I could go to...the Utah vs BYU game of course!! Not the best game at first, but the end of the last quarter proved freakin awesome!! Way to go UTES!

the red mass on the field :)

Me down on the field

Ali and I after climbing back out of the red chaos! So so glad they managed to pull off a win. Now on to the Vegas Bowl, yes I'm going, vs Boise State (yikes!)

Almost time for...

2010-11-17T14:14:00.000-08:00

SKI SEASON!!! Alta opens on friday, and I couldn't be more excited. I took my skis into REI last week to get waxed, bought a new coat and am ready to hit the slopes! Alta had a great deal on a "Young Adult" pass (ages 18-25) so I splurged and got the season pass. I probably won't make it up there till Monday due to wanting to avoid the weekend crowds. Hurray, less than a week and I'll be skiing down West Rustler...well maybe i'll need some warm up runs first. My goal is to get up there once to twice a week, ah I love season passes :)

Not a lot else going on right now, work work working so I can have money for christmas and for paying off all my fun in europe! Trips on the horizon though don't you worry. Hope everyone is doing something fun for thanksgiving next week. I feel that writing the token "what i'm thankful for" post would be cheesy and probably insincere so instead I'll just say I'm excited to be able to go to Vegas to see my fun extended family and eat delicious, practically gourmet food.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Vegas Ragnar Relay '10

2010-11-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

So my mom and I joined a Ragnar team formed by some of my coworkers so that we could run the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay. By running the Wasatch Back 2010 Ragnar Relay and the Vegas 2010 Ragnar Relay we got a special medal!! The Saints and Sinners medal, and it rocks! Totally worth it :) It was a fun, eventful weekend. Also, had a blast being able to run in the same van as mom. Every year in the Wasatch Back we have to be in different vans so we hardly even see each other.

Here we are near Lake Mead, waiting for Van 1

Alicia diggin in the back of the car

Team "No Fetus can beat Us" Van 2

Hydrating pre leg 1, I was runner 7 so I kick off van 2

Anxiously awaiting runner 6. I had to have water on me because the road I was running on was a "non-support" leg so my van couldn't stop and give me water. I ended up wearing my water for all three legs. Thanks SL running co. !

Middle of Leg 1. All three legs were uphill yay.

Finishing leg 1

the mascot of one of the exchanges, funny volunteers. From 5pm-7:15am we had to have thoses vests on.

Mom and Alicia

Poor Alicia had to wear her vest, headlamp and red flasher for all three of her legs. she did great!

Mom handing off to Shelly for her first leg

getting ready for a nap in Henderson before our 2nd legs. Mine was just through the city, and yes more uphill!

Me and Mom, at this point I was done running and she was getting ready to run.

I was doing a really special flag dance waiting for Terry to run by. I might have been a little high on endorphins at this point.

I crashed by early morning though! this was on the way to the last big exchange where we would take over for the last 6 legs of the race. Just a bit tired at this point.

Darn hand! Me running my 10.1 mile "ragnar" leg of the race. I ran the "ragnar" leg of the Wasatch Back too! this was a killer leg, 6 miles up and over a mountain then 4 back down.

Almost done!!

This is a horrible pic of me, but aptly describes how I felt at the end of that 3rd and LONG leg

Shelly, Lesli and Terry waiting at an exchange

yeah mom!

Me and Mom, 4 ragnars done!

Alicia getting ready to finish us off!

The Whole Team! Good job everyone!

I can't wait to do it again in June :) perhaps I have a disease??

Pisa and Cinque Terre

2010-10-26T20:41:00.001-07:00

On the way to Cinque Terre (5 gorgeous towns on the Italian Riveria) we stopped in a little town called Pisa...ta da!

Of Course had to do the holding up the tower pic

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Italian Riviera in Monterosso

Vernazza

Monterosso

Riomaggiorre

Venice and Milan

2010-10-26T20:13:00.001-07:00

So the last two days of this fantastic trip were spent in Venezia and then Milan. Loved Venice, it was so fascinating to me! Just a whole city, chilling on water, just waiting to sink!

On a Bridge in Venice

At the train station in Venice, we found the Oriental Express. My parents rode this train 14 years ago from Venice to Paris to London! Their train looks a lot nicer than the one Catherine and I rode from Paris to Rome, haha!

San Marco's Basilica

San Marco's Square

Palazzo Ducale

Classic Venice

Rialto Bridge, the first bridge over the grand canal!

Better view of Rialto Bridge and a Godoliere

Inside of the Duomo in Milan

Galleria of Victor Emmanuel

Outside of the Duomo in Milan

Firenze (aka Florence)

2010-10-18T17:55:00.000-07:00

Going from Siena we then came to Florence, we had 3 and a half days in this beautiful city. Not enough time by a long shot! There are so many museums to go to here, historical sites and delicious restaurants to eat. Here are a few pics from Florence!

The gardens behind the Pitti Palace, where the Medici's used to live and rule.

Pitti Palace

Inside Santa Croce (church) at Machiavelli's Tomb

Michelangelo's Tomb

Galileo's Tomb

Outside Santa Croce

Grocery shopping

at the Mercato Centrale

Buying my leather jacket, what is with Italian men and wanting kisses?

Streets of Florence

The Duomo in Florence

Ponte Vecchio Bridge

Top of the Duomo

Cool old Pianos

Gold Baptistry Doors

Replica of the David in his old original spot. We saw the original, but no pictures were allowed.

River in Florence

Siena, Tuscany...yummy!

2010-10-16T23:08:00.000-07:00

From Roma we then went to Siena! I love Siena, home of The Palio. Also one of the safest cities in Italy thanks to the Contradas pride in keeping their neighborhoods safe and clean. I'm sure that's why BYU chose to have one of their Study Abroad programs there. Anyway, love Siena, so very different from Rome but so quaint and amazing at the same time!

Me in the main square, Il Campo

Il Campo

View of Siena

The Duomo in Siena

Pulpit carved by Donatello? in the Duomo

Amazing carved marble floor in the Duomo

Sculpture by Michelangelo

Another church in Siena

My favorite Lasagna of my life!!!

Looking back at Siena

Baptistry in the Duomo

Chinese food even in the Siena

Enjoy the video of siena

Roma!

2010-10-15T10:37:00.000-07:00

So from Paris we then took a 15 hour overnight train ride to Rome! Rome was absolutely amazing, so much history so close together in the middle of a thriving city! I LOVED Rome.

My bed on the train

Pizza in Rome, we had pizza on a daily basis :)

Piazza di San Pietro, St. Peter's Basilica there behind me

Castle de San Angelo

Piazza Navona

this guy made me a little bracelet and was irritated that I only gave him 1 euro for it. So he begged for a kiss, and well as you can see I let him have one!

Fountain on the Piazza Navona

The Pantheon

Inside of the Pantheon

Trevi Fountain!

The Spanish Steps

View of St. Peters Square from the basilica

Inside the Raphael Rooms inside Vatican City, this is Raphael's School of Athens

Villa Medici

Inside Vatican City

Vatican City

Sculpture in the Vatican Museum

Michelangelo's La Pieta inside St. Peter's Basilica

The way down to the tombs inside the Basilica

Outside of St. Peter's Basilica

Inside the Coloseum!!

Constantine's Arch

More Coloseum

view from the lower level

Outside it now! It is massive.

The Roman Forum, I love that all these ancient sites are surrounded by more modern buildings

Roman Forum

Part of Constantine's Basilica

Monument to Victor Emmanuel II (man who united Italy in 1860)

Square designed by Michelangelo

Rome was a whirlwind of sight seeing, really not enough time. There were many places we had to rush through or skip :( Now on to Siena!

Paris

2010-10-11T07:11:00.000-07:00

I had the awesome opportunity to go to Paris and then all over Italy with a friend of mine from work. We started in Paris and then headed down to Italy and then finished in Paris before going back to Pari to then fly home. Here are some pictures of our few days in Paris!

Me and the Seine

Notre Dame

Inside Notre Dame

Paris from the Eiffel Tower

At the Louvre

Outside the Louvre

Mona Lisa

Arc De Triumphe

Fountain at the end of the Champs Eylsees

Grounds of Versaille

Golden gate entrance at Versaille

Arc de Triumphe

Statue of Liberty Paris

Paris was a fantastic city. I wish we could have had more time but the main event of the trip was really Italy. More pics to come!

Top of Utah Marathon

2010-10-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

Yes that's right, I finally ran my very first Marathon! It was a great first experience and only made me want to try it again, and get a better time. The Top of Utah Marathon goes from up Blacksmith Fork Canyon (near Logan), down into Logan. It was such a gorgeous run down the canyon! Just as I was starting to get a little bored (around mile 17) I saw my awesome family. They came up to cheer me on, how very nice of them! Mom ran with me for a mile and then Stephen ran with me for the last two miles, what a sweet little bro!

Around Mile 21

Finishing this thing!

Ran into my friend Jamen at the finish!

All done! 4:45:11

Disneyland Half Marathon

2010-09-08T11:07:00.001-07:00

Once again ran another super fun half marathon! A few weeks ago my aunt, mom and I ran the Provo River Trail 1/2 Marathon and had so much fun. Now this past weekend my mom and I went to Disneyland to run the 5th annual Disneyland 1/2 Marathon. By far the MOST fun i've ever had when running a race. They had the characters out to cheer you on, high school bands and cheerleaders and random intervals cheering you on and more water stations than any other 1/2 i've run. We also of course played hard in Disneyland for a few days which made for one tiring weekend!

Mom, Cousin Alex and I after riding Space Mountain

Mom and I picking up our race packet stuff for the race!

The race started at 6am, still a little dark. You were organized into corrals based on your pace. Fortunately they considered my pace quick enough to be in Corral B, it went back as far as G!!

Mickey and Minnie in jogging suits cheering us on as we started!

The day befroe the race Ali (who lives in Cali now) and mom and I went to the beach!

Pre Race, yes we wore the tiaras the whole time.

Lunch at Disneyland later on race day! We played at Disneyland ALL day that day :)

So I had to stop running and get a picture with the Princesses!! I stopped a few times during the race to use the restroom, film things, take pictures and still managed to get a 2:09:52

Mom and I with our Medals!!

This was SUCH a fun race!! I hope that in the next year or two I can do one of the Disney World races and this race again so that I can qualify for the "Coast to Coast" medal :) Which is the whole reason for running these races right?? HAHA!

End of Summer?

2010-09-02T17:32:00.000-07:00

For some reason the fact that it is now September is slightly sad. I'm not sure why excatly because there are some awesome things happening this fall

UTAH FOOTBALL! Gotta love and cheer for my Utes!
Trip to Italy with cute friend Catherine, 2 weeks in gorgeous Italy and Paris!!
Running my first Marathon (yikes!)
Running the Vegas Ragnar with Mom and friends.

and of course, Fall means we are closer to winter which then means I can break out the skis!! So why be sad the summer is ending when the rest of the year is going to be just as fantastic? Who knows, I'm not a huge fan of my winter wardrobe haha! Maybe that will have to be updated. Anyway, for now I'm off to California to see my friend Ali and run the Disneyland Half Marathon for Labor Day Weekend! See ya!

Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back 2010!!

2010-06-26T23:57:00.001-07:00

Well it's that time of year again! This year was my third year of running the Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back, and of course it was a blast! We started with Van 1 up in Logan at 10:15 am Friday June 18 and Van 2 ran us into the finish line Saturday June 19 at 6:30 pm. Good Job everyone, can't wait for next year!!

Van 1 kicked us off in Logan, UT at 10:15 am on friday (our runner is Liz in pink)

The whole team (minus liz) at the second big exchange point. Van one was taking over for their second legs, we (Van 2) had just finished our first legs here.

Maybe someday we'll get to run in the same van again! Cute mommy :)

Ashleigh was Runner 7, and did it 14 wks pregnant!

Stein rocked Runner 8 (Ashleigh's husband, here is hoping he forgives her for making him run this race haha!)

Bryan B was a freaking rock star, super fast!!

Kati getting ready to run up a mountain, she is such an amazing runner!

Spencer was Runner 12. He did an awesome job and the next day got to run us into the finish line!

Van 2 before our first legs in Liberty, UT

So My first leg took us to the base of Snow Basin (Kati and Spence got to run up the mtn this year)

Our second legs didn't start till 2 am, yikes! My second leg was 7.7 miles and ran us somewhere near Wanship?

My last run was a beast of a mountain. the road up and over Guardsman Pass. Bryan ran the first 3.6 miles of it and then I took over for 4 more miles of torture!!!

This run mentally kicked my butt, I was pretty well trained and not really even sore the next day but mentally-YUCK! Here's hoping I can do a better job next year. It was fun all in all though, our Van had a good time together and I am so excited for next ragnar. But sooner than that is my upcoming Marathon in September!

Huang Shan and Beijing!

2010-06-21T16:58:00.000-07:00

Ok So the trip actually started in Beijing, we spent 3 days here and then 4 days in Huang Shan for some amazing views and lots of stair hiking!

Tiananmen Square

Forbidden City

At the Entrance to the Forbidden City

Courtyard of the Forbidden City

This Forbidden City was Huge!

More Forbidden City!

Summer Palace

Bicycle Ride through a neighborhood (Hutong) near the Forbidden City

Drum Tower in Beijing

The Bird's Nest, site of the 2008 Olympics

Water Cube, site of Michael Phelps's 8 Gold Medals!

The Great Wall, Janshinling Section

We hiked 6 miles of the wall, some was very well repaired

other sections definitely were not

More views of the Great Wall

Steep!

We ziplined at the end of our Great Wall Hike

Next stop Huang Shan, known for Mountains covered in mist.

Practicing caligraphy in the city of Huang Shan

Tour of an old village

Hiking in Huang Shan, lots of stairs!

More stairs, i like the ledge stairs they look so stable right?

We stayed overnight in a hotel up in these mountains then hiked out (26 kilometers), of course had to bag 4 peaks on the way out.

Just a bit steep

At the top of Lotus Peak

Bridge in the Mist

Not the safest railings, gotta love China!

CHINA!

2010-06-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

Shanghai and Xi'an

There is just no way to show all the pictures of this absolutely amazing trip (over 2400 pics). So I thought I'd start at the end of the trip and work my way backwards. These are pics from Shanghai and the city of Xi'an!

The Bund, Shanghai. This was the old colonial hotspot where a lot of trading with China used to take place.

The Oriental Pearl Building (Pudong side of the river), now a major financial district

I didn't even plan it!

Yu Gardens in Shanghai, this is fun zig-zag bridge that was in all the guide books.

Better view

Communist Garden in Shanghai, a memorial for the martyrs blah blah blah

delicious persian food!

Buddhist Temple in Shanghai

The Pearl at night

Saudi Pavilion at the World Expo. Every country built an amazing building to showcase their country.

United Arab Emirate's Building

Sawadeekah!

Yay USA!

My uncle kept messing up this picture

awesome chinglish

Now the Terra Cotta Soldiers in Xi'an

so freaking cool!

Bell Tower in Xi'an

some sort of animal foot, i'm a pretty adventurous eater but I didn't try this.

yummy yummy dumplings!

Daoist Temple that puts on a water show every night!

Ancient Chinese Mosque in Xi'an

More pictures from Beijing and Huang Shan to come!

Still here!

2010-05-30T21:18:00.001-07:00

Sorry May has been absolutely nuts and I have many many things to say! For now though I'm too tired to say all the many things I have to say so enjoy your Memorial Day Weekend! Also, here is a sneak peak into my china trip :)

Me on the Great Wall of China!!!

Baby Shower Fun!

2010-04-26T13:02:00.000-07:00

My close friend Lady is having her first baby in just a few short weeks so I (with help from our friends) threw her a little baby shower this past saturday. I never thought I could fit so many people in my little house but we did, and everyone survived! I'm so excited for her to have this baby, and can't wait to see the little girl myself!

Carol (lady's mom), H and T (sis in law and nephew) enjoying some yummy food!

Steep, Lena, Ali and Kristine

Spencer's family represented!

Lady waiting to open her presents!

Me and Lady

Lena and Lady

Some of the High School Gals with the Quilt Kristine made and we all helped tie.

Steep and Karli's little guy, steep this picture is for Dan!

The shower was a big hit in my book, Congratulations Lady and Spence you guys are going to be such cute parents!!

Salt Lake 1/2 Marathon

2010-04-21T12:09:00.001-07:00

Well this past saturday was the 7th annual Salt Lake Marathon, 1/2 marathon and 5K. As anyone who has read this blog at all in the past two months knows, I've been training for the 1/2 Marathon. I ran with my cute Mom, some of our work friends and some of my other crazy friends as well. It was a fantastic day for a race, gorgeous and sunny!! My goal was to improve on my time from last year, which was 2:21. Well this year thanks to much better training I was able to finish in 2:09:28!!!! I'm so happy with this time, that is an average pace of 9:54 (yes I know that might sound slow to some of you but it is a personal best for me!). Here are some pics from the race!

Mom and I at the finish! She did it in 2:32, good job Mom!!

Kati and I, we've been friends for 20 years and apparently we're both insane together! She did the 1/2 in 1:52, she is freaking amazing!!

coming out of Liberty Park and still feeling great!

Once I finished I went back up the course to find my cute Mom!

2:09:28 baby!!

My legs are a bit sore but don't you worry, I've already gone running twice now this week. Why you ask? Well it's Ragnar training time now!!

Getting Anxious and Excited!

2010-04-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

So the Salt Lake 1/2 Marathon (and full) is on saturday! I feel like the training has just breezed on by, my "long" run this past weekend was only 7.8 miles. Nothing in comparison to the 12.5 just a few weekends ago! To top it off the weekend weather was absolutely gorgeous, I was able to run in just a tank and shorts. Here's hoping this weekend will be nice weather...or at least not SNOWING like it did earlier this week.

Other things to be excited about? Hmm perhaps going to China in T-minus 19 days!!!! I'm so psyched to be able to go on this trip, and can't wait to see all the various places and things we'll be seeing. Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai are the main locations we'll be with one undecided city to pick still. Even better, I'm going with my uncle that speaks fluent mandarin and my awesome cousin so how much more fun could we have?!

Life pretty much couldn't get any better...except of course it does! When I get home my friend Lady will either have had her very first baby, or be having it very soon after I return. Can't wait!! I'm so very excited for her, and of course a nervous wreck because well I'm a NICU nurse at primary's :)

Just one month from then comes one of the best parts of the summer, something which you'll hear me talk WAY more about which is the Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back of course!! This will be the third year of doing this fantastic race and I really can't wait. I wish it was this weekend...yes I know the rest of my van that is reading this right now are all sighing and shaking their heads in disbelief. Suffice it to say as soon as I'm home from China the serious HILL training must begin. I've been really good about running hills already, most of my runs right now have some serious incline for miles and miles. The crazy thing is this uphill running which I used to dread and hate and whine about is now my favorite part. I would rather run uphill for miles than run flat or even downhill, not that I don't enjoy a break on occasion too haha! (Mom that is all your fault) So every weekend I'm not at work until the ragnar you'll find me huffing and puffing my way up Millcreek Canyon, come join me :)

(I apologize to anyone who is annoyed by the peppiness of this blog post, to which I say deal with it and don't read it if it bugs you, I'm too high on endorphins continually to be very pessimistic!)

Easter...Snow?

2010-04-05T23:31:00.001-07:00

How was your Easter? For the life of me I could not remember that this past weekend was even easter weekend. It just sort of snuck up on me, probably because that's just how life is sometimes right?

So what have I been doing that Easter snuck up and then disappeared? I'm sitting here trying to figure that out, without much success. I've definitely been having some tunnel vision about the upcoming half marathon, APRIL 17 just in case you were wondering. The running is still going well, I ran a 9 miler on saturday with my awesome mom and felt great! This race is going to be a breeze, haha or at least I hope so. Of course now that it's april and the ragnar is just over two months away and that means that as soon as the half is over it's time for some serious HILL training!! Which funny enough is my new favorite thing, I would rather run up hill for miles than run flat or downhill any day of the week!

Wow and now that i've blabbed for a paragraph about my tunnel vision hobby and bored my whole tens of readers, i'll finish my update. The rest of life is great, my work is keeping me busy. I've been staying entertained to say the least with new friends, I refuse to say anything else here but if you talk to me in person you probably know all my torrid stories lol!

Enjoy the snow, I know I will be in a few days at Alta!!

Gorgeous Saturday...and procrastination.

2010-03-27T15:16:00.000-07:00

My friend Kate came running with me today. She is a hard core fast runner, but was nice and stayed with me for our 12.5 mile run. I may not have told her all the details of the run...like how the first three miles were all up hill and how the end point was not exactly in the place she was thinking (oops :) ) The nice part was that we kept each other company and got to catch up, and really it wasn't a bad run at all once we hit wasatch drive! To top it off the weather was beautiful this morning (and all day) so we had a spectacular view of the valley the whole run, awesome!!

Now I'm just trying to put off writing my talk for sacrament meeting tomorrow. I am not a huge fan of speaking in front of people. It's getting better since I've been teaching sunday school, but for some reason Sac Mtg still gives me butterflies! Ah don't we all love procrastination! Hope everyone else enjoyed the gorgeous saturday :)

Happy Birthday to Me (late)

2010-03-20T21:12:00.001-07:00

So Wednesday was my 24th Birthday! Yup I said it out loud, haha! It was a great day though. Started out very early...like midnight early hanging out with a friend watching an excellent movie. Fast forward a few hours to heading up Little Cottonwood Canyon for one of the MOST gorgeous ski days of the season, sunny warm with nice soft snow (perhaps slightly slushy in parts). Took the parentals with me since it was a weekday and everyone else I know was in school or work. Dad and I had fun forcing Mom down runs she was scared of, she did great too! After completely frying my face skiing all day a newer friend took me out for sushi, it was soooo good! Finish the night with a chick flik with of my best girl friends and you have one awesome birthday. Thanks for all the Bday wishes all day, they were much appreciated!!

(yes I know I use exclamation points often and inappropriately...oh well!!!)

Moving on, thanks for all the new recommendations for Thai and Indian food. I can't wait to go try them all! Now you all have to come with me too, and then we'll all go for the 12 mile run I need to do in the next week. I'm trying to come up with a new route, I've been running from my place to my parent's house and back (plus variations on this) which is fine but too much straight which just makes you notice how much farther you have to go. We'll see what I create, perhaps i'll see what others have created on runwalkjog.com

Anyways, Happy First Day of Spring!

Delicious Food!

2010-03-15T20:29:00.001-07:00

I am a fan of a lot of different kinds of food. Ever since I went to Thailand last May I have been in LOVE with Thai food. Two best places in the valley in my opinion? Sawadee and Pawit's Royale Thai Cuisine, if you haven't been to either of these places then GO!

Today one of my roommates and I went to a delicious Indian food restaurant, and the best part? At lunch time it is buffet style, which is ideal when eating asian food because then you can try a little bit of lots of different dishes. I highly recommend the Himalayan Kitchen, my new favorite place for lunch! Probably completely negated all the calories I burned on the 5 mile run I went on prior to going to this heavenly lunch, but at least it was delicious :)

Ahhhhh Days Off!

2010-03-10T21:49:00.000-08:00

Today marks the first day of my "staycation"! I worked 5 shifts in 6 days and am so ready for a few days off. What better way to start this time off than with a run right? It was a little bit chilly today but I went anyway, and managed to keep up a 10 min mile the whole time! I am a slow runner so this is decently quick for me. But YAY!

Things to do while not working include: a serious amount of laundry, skiing (hopefully lots of it), dinner with friends, honestly some good old fashioned relaxing, and of course much more running! The 1/2 marathon is just over a month away and I'm up to 10 miles this week. Funny enough I'm actually really enjoying running, the endorphin high, the satisfaction of the accomplishment, plus the knowledge that I'm getting more fit is just awesome. Just this past weekend I created a nice 8.8 mile run with tons of uphill and downhill (i blame my mother for all the hills i feel compelled to run) and it was such a great run, I felt really good the whole time.

Hope you all have fun at work etc while I enjoy my "staycation"!!

Church Callings, yikes!

2010-03-05T14:54:00.000-08:00

In January I switched singles wards in order to start attending the ward I actually live in the boundaries for. Partly because I'm lazy and partly because I feel like you should go to the ward you live in the boundaries for, right? It's another singles ward no worries :) So My first sunday in the ward the RS pres is about to have us sing our opening hymn acapella. In my mind I'm thinking, wait I live in Utah and there is no one in this room that plays the piano?? Of course guilt won out and I quietly raised my hand and said hey I play would you like me to accompany us? The RS pres was SO happy, this in turn led to me also playing in sunday school (naturally right?) Well then I am walking into Sac Meeting and the Bishop approaches me, and oh yes I played the hymns in Sac Meeting too. Quite the first week in the ward! The RS pres of course has had me called to be the RS pianist, which I gladly accepted because it is a breeze of a calling for me.

Fast forward to just this past sunday, I'm sitting in Sunday School and the Bishop asks to talk to me for a second. My mind starts to race as I think, wait I already have a calling!! So now i'm sitting in his office as he begins to tell me The Sunday School presidency has prayerfully been seeking for a new gospel doctrine teacher...and they feel that they have been inspired to call you to that position. Well CRAP!!! I have never had any kind of teaching position in the church, and I was sort of hoping that I could just hide behind the piano in RS and call it good! So much for that I guess. Thank goodness for the manual that tells you exactly what to do, but Old Testament is not necessarily the easiest subject. To make me even more nervous my first lesson will be on MARRIAGE, in a SINGLES ward. How wonderful. Any good ideas on how to broach the subject? (It's lesson 10 in the Old Testament for those who have the student handout or feel like glancing at lds.org)

March!!

2010-03-01T17:23:00.000-08:00

I love when it starts becoming warm outside, the first hint of spring is here and I couldn't be happier about it. Warm means more running outside, flowers, spring skiing, and the start of outdoor BBQ's again. Of course I could also love March because it means my birthday too!! I was not at all excited for my birthday last year. This year I've decided to have a better attitude about it, hurray for one year older. Bring on an even better year, 24 is going to be awesome!

Thankful...

2010-02-24T12:14:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for the insane business at work. Even though it means we all run around like crazy, don't get the breaks we need and have way too much on our plates. Why? Because it is JOB SECURITY.

RSV has hit with a vengance here at PCMC, and of course at the same time the acuity/census in our NICU picked up as well. I've never seen it like this, it's completely nuts! Good thing I love my job because we are all working extra shifts right now just to barely staff the unit.

Also, I am so happy it is snowing right now :) We desperatly need it and I am dying for a good day of powder skiing! Hope everyone else is having a good work/school/other day!

Winter Vancouver Olympics

2010-02-18T21:36:00.000-08:00

As most of us are doing right now, I'm watching the Olympics. I am an Olympic Junkie! The first games I vaguely remember watching are the Lillihammer games in '94. Ever since then my family and I have avidly watched summer and winter olympics. Now thanks to DVR, internet replays, and 5 different channels almost constantly airing some event I can gorge myself on the Olympic Games :) It is just so much fun to watch these amazing athletes compete! Since 2002 I think i've fallen even more in love with the Winter Games, maybe the games will get to come back to SLC again some day. Hope everyone else is enjoying the games as well, Go Team USA!

Valentine's Weekend

2010-02-15T03:27:00.000-08:00

Usually I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's Day. As a kid my mom always made it fun, and the junk food received at school was great but as I got older it became something of a let down. This year I decided to try and have a better attitude about it. So in thorough Valentine's fashion I saw 2 chick fliks with some girl friends, and made cookies/frosted cookies with my awesome married friends. First chick flik friday night was Dear John with the very attractive Tatum Channing, maybe 2 stars. Saturday night we went and saw Valentine's Day, along the tradition of "He's Just Not That Into You" and "Love Actually". I enjoyed this one much more than "Dear John", It was funny, cute, with a little bit of heart. Of course Valentines is much more fun when there is romance in the air, and I'm happy to report that in that department I was not disappointed this year :) Hope everyone else had a great weekend, I know I did!

Exercising...

2010-02-11T22:41:00.000-08:00

Why is it that every fall I let myself stop exercising? Then come jan/feb I have to rebuild the endurance all over again, and it is so painful! Well the good news is I'm back to the grind, running/going to the gym 3-4 times a week. (No I am not insane like my mother haha :) ) I have found that if I have something to train for I then am much better at forcing myself to go running etc. So here is the line up: Feb 27 Fight for Air Climb (please donate!!!), April 17 Salt Lake Half Marathon, June 18-19 Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay, Des News 10K July 24, August 7 Provo Trail 1/2 Marathon, and Top of Utah Marathon in September (maybe, yikes!!). I'm hoping that line up will help me stay motivated. We'll see what happens!

Fun Series

2010-01-14T23:40:00.001-08:00

I'm sure that everyone but me has already read these books but I'm a little behind the times. I just finished The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and wow what a book! It's an easy read and meant for teens but I really enjoyed this one. Sitting at work, yes gasp I was reading at work, reading this book has been a bit of an obsession the past two nights. It's one of those books that has a decent plot and draws you in from the very beginning. Can't wait to start the next one, if a fellow family member is done reading it that is!

Changes

2010-01-12T13:23:00.000-08:00

The main picture up with my name was taken a little over a year ago, it has inspired me to cut my hair short again! Perhaps pictures to come...

End of the Year, where did it go?

2009-12-28T22:43:00.000-08:00

Remember way back in '99 when we all wondered, "How will we refer to the year? will we have to say two thousand one, two, etc all the time?" Well now my question is, where did those ten years even go? I know I might be too young to say this, but I feel like time is just flying by. Of course I was quite young ten years ago, but then I look at all the things that have happened since 2000 it amazes me. So here are a few....

graduated junior high, oh promotion how very special.
started high school...and finished high school
Attended and received a degree from the University of Utah

and....

Began my Career, something i've wanted to do since I was probably seven or eight years old.

There are many more silly little things, places i've traveled for the first time, and other awesome events but wow, what a decade!

HaPpY HoLiDaYs!

2009-12-23T20:11:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas!

The New Place

2009-12-17T12:10:00.000-08:00

Well I finally moved out of the parents house! I moved in with some friends and it's great. I love being a little closer to work. I'm actually enjoying keeping my own place clean (can someone help pick my mom's jaw off the floor?). Fortunately everyone in the house has their own room, and there are two bathrooms so we only have to share with one other person.

Also, who doesn't love Christmas time? This has to be one of my favorite times of the year. I love the snow, the music (please only the classic stuff), the gift buying and of course the family time. I'm looking forward to many family members coming into town which will mean fun times, lots of ski time and excellent food!

Merry Christmas!!

Who Planned this trip??

2009-11-23T19:42:00.000-08:00

For my Mom's Birthday back in July I gave her "coupons" for tickets to see Wicked on Broadway. It took us till just a few weeks ago to actually go, but it was so much fun! My Mom enjoys traveling but had never been to NYC, which of course I decided needed to change. So we took the red eye on a wednesday night after a few days of work and started playing the minute we got there. We had a few hours to kill before we could check into the hotel so we had them hold our bags and then we were off to play...at 8am after flying all night. We tried to hit absolutely everything we could, and I personally think we did a great job, here are some of the highlights.

Morning 1, we had to go pick up our NY passes, sweet deal that got us into everything free and we often got to skip the lines.

View from Empire State Building

Maddam Toussad's Wax Museum on Times Square

yummy frozen hot chocolate, at Serendipity 3

Our Hotel was very close to Grand Central Station

Day 2, The Chrysler Building

The UN was just around the corner from our hotel. This is the Assembly room.

Top of the Rock

Ice skating Rink at Rockefeller Plaza

Before Wicked!

Ok so our seats were sort of far away.

Waiting for the show to start.

Day 3 at the MoMA, these are Monet's Water Lilies

Andy Warhol, MoMA

still day 3, now at the Met

Visiting Jeron at his Law School!

Day 4, church and the Manhattan Temple

Shopping on canal street...gucci, prada, chanel?

We decided to get the day of discount tickets to a show, and got 2nd row tickets to chicago!

Day 5, Da Bull

Us at the Statue of Liberty

The skyline from the Statue of Liberty.

Fun museum actually, educational information

Had to see the Brooklyn Bridge, and since we of course weren't walking enough, walk out to the first stone structure.

Yes we did the discount tickets the next night and saw Phantom of the Opera, i LOVED it!!

At the Central Park Zoo, Mom is trying to demonstrate how to jump as far as the snow leopard.

Day 6, Our NY passes got us in free to the zoo and the children's zoo. Don't ever feed to goat, it was gross.

The atrium inside the Guggenheim.

I think we wore ourselves out running and riding all over Manhattan, it was one heck of a trip! Which city will we do next? Who knows!

Happy Halloween

2009-11-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Halloween everyone! Thanks to S & J for letting me come along to what can only be described as "Gay Halloween", friends from a singing group S used to be in and man were they funny! On Halloween we all went to L's Happy Halloween/End of Chemo party! I'm so glad that she is done with chemo, she is absolutely amazing, and throws a great party!

Right where the picture ends is where Bruno's pants end too.

Mr. & Ms. Pacman, and Mikey the cowboy

The gang on Halloween

I was a Flapper!

The girls

The celebrity of the night and her hubby, excellent costumes guys!

Just Hangin!

Shopping

2009-10-12T19:45:00.001-07:00

So for a while now I have been thinking that my wardrobe is extremely boring. Not only that but there are not many choices. I own a ridiculous amount of t-shirts thanks to the U, sorority, and other such places that like to always give away shirts. Other than that I have 4 or 5 short sleeve shirts I like, 2-3 long sleeve shirts I like, and probably only 1 pair of jeans I truly like.

So now that it decided to get cold and I started reading everyones blogs about "yay it's cold and now I can wear my sweaters" it made me realize I need new clothes!! I dragged a friend out with me friday afternoon. We went to Old Navy first, which I don't usually like but ended up really enjoying. Found a bunch of stuff for said friend and a dress, a shirt, and pea coat for me. Friend was mocking my next store choice pretty harshly, I wanted to go to Ann Taylor, friend claims this is a "mom" store. Well fortunately I proved said friend very wrong, I found 4 shirts, two sweaters and a pair of pants. None of which, after modeling them, were determined to fall in the category of "mom clothes".

All said and done it was an excellent shopping trip and I now have a new favorite store! I love Ann Taylor, especially when things are on sale.

Fun things to do

2009-09-26T20:38:00.001-07:00

I've been wanting to do the Alpine slide up at the Park City Mountain Resort all summer but never had any time. Since I've had most of the weekend off I finally found some people to go up with. Sadly no one took any pictures so here are some token brochure pics. If you've never gone I highly recommend it. The coaster is by far my favorite because you can go so fast and not worry about falling out, unlike the slide. Go before it gets cold!

Yes I know these are very cheesy pictures but I wanted to demonstrate the fun!!

Crazy Work Days

2009-09-03T13:46:00.000-07:00

You know it's going to be a crazy day at my work when you walk in the room and every night shift nurse in the room says "You do NOT want to be in here today!". My poor little primary is having issues yet again, I was only gone one day and she of course deteriorated overnight :( The day continued to remain fairly busy, going for imaging studies and consulting with various services etc made it one heck of a day!

Uintahs Backpacking Trip

2009-08-14T16:18:00.000-07:00

My family tries to go on a camping/backpacking trip every summer. This year we went up to the Uintahs near Christmas Meadows and did the Lake Kermsah hike. It's about 9 miles one way and pretty steep right at the end. Fun times with the family and gorgeous views!

Shawn, Alex, Max, Phil and Me (mom taking the picture) at the start.

Beautiful Meadow!

My Uncle Phil caught some delicious trout at the lake.

Hiking around the Lake

The lake and mountain.

Canada Anyone?

2009-07-30T15:22:00.000-07:00

As many of you already know, our Asthma Camp got cancelled this year 3 days before it was scheduled to begin. The reasoning behind canceling was that the American Lung Association felt that the swine flu posed too high of a risk to continue with camp.

Well this left me with quite a bit of time off to fill. My friend J has a funny little competition with our friend S to see all the temples in the World. With Camp being cancelled the idea came to drive up to Canada of all places. The temples were gorgeous, the driving was crazy long, and overall it was a total blast!

J actually made it across the borders with just a drivers license and copy of his birth certificate!

Very small little temple

Who knew my shirt would match the flowers?

The water park inside the West Edmonton Mall, which claims to be even bigger than the Mall of America!

Cardston Temple, reminded me of the Mesa Temple in Architecture style.

Back in the US, phew!

Billings, Montana Temple

It was very hot in Billings!

Rexburg, Idaho Temple Gorgeous Sunset.

Happy Fourth of July!

2009-07-05T05:24:00.000-07:00

All growing up I loved the month of July because just two weeks apart are two of the best summer holidays! It would be hard to pick out which holiday is a bigger deal in my family. We always have celebrated both and tend to light of A LOT of fireworks for one or the other, sometimes both. What I find funny is that Salt Lake City does a parade for the 24th and not the 4th. As a funny neighbor yesterday afternoon noted, the country celebrates the fourth as the day We departed from England and became our own country and Utah celebrates the 24th as the day they departed the USA and started out new again.

This year I was stuck at work friday and saturday night. We had fun up here at PCMC with our babies and watched all the fireworks in the valley from our windows! Pretty good view actually.

Happy Fourth and Twenty-Fourth of July!

Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back 2009

2009-06-25T18:15:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay 2009! My mom and I had such a good time doing this race last year with some of my nursing school friends that we decided to put together our own team. So we got 12 people together and ran for 33 hours 2 min and 54 seconds. Fortunately it is a relay so only one person at a time were actually running. We split into two cars of six people each, runners 1-6 and runners 7-12. It was an absolute blast although I could have done without the rain at the end!

Here is Van 1 (runners 1-6) getting ready to kick things off at the start line Friday morning. Our Van didn't go up to the start line since we didn't start running for a few hours.

Here is our Van, thanks Kati!

Van 2 (runners 7-12) waiting for runner 6 to come in and hand off to Whitney!

Kati and I matched, awe cute! Who would've thought that these two kids who met at age 3 would be running this crazy race together at age 23!!

Whitney running her first leg, the mist bottle is a must!

Ashleigh ran so fast, this is her first leg.

Our awesome driver (and friend) Jessica, her hubby spence was running so I begged her to come drive us! She stayed up and drove and drove and drove! We owe her big time.

Kati handing off to Spencer, it was pretty hot friday afternoon!

Spence running his first leg.

Kati, Ash and I waiting for Spence to hand off the sweaty slap bracelet to me.

Are you sponge worthy? The sponge really does help you cool off, and my first run was straight up a mountain!

Almost the whole team except Katie M van 1's first runner.

Mary rocked up this hill!

It was so weird not to be running with mom, but aren't we cute? I swear we look like we could be sisters sometimes.

So once nightfall hits reflective vests, head lamps and butt flashers are required. Kati and I matching again.

Whitney had already done her run but I was still waiting, all night long!

Jess and Spence, this was about 2 am our van had been running for 2 hours and ended up running for another 4!

Kati had a super long run for her second leg, she killed it though.

Hurray for the last legs!

It of course started to rain on us, here is Ash passing off to Kati who then had to run half way up Guardsmann Pass.

See the valley? She started down there.

Spence took over and did the other half of the mountain.

My last leg, of course it was pouring to start. I finished the last bit of mountain to summit and then ran down through deer valley.

Oh so wet!

We finished!

Just barely finished my last leg, thank goodness!

The whole team together, one crazy group of girls...and Spence! I think everyone had fun and we're going for it again next year.

Thailand 09!!

2009-05-25T10:14:00.001-07:00

As many of you know I recently returned from a two week trip to Thailand. It was an amazing experience and I loved every minute of it! I went with a group called YouthLinc and we did some humanitarian work while there, but also got to see a lot of cool things. Being able to teach healthcare topics there was a great opportunity and I hope that the villagers learned something useful. I want to do more service trips now but have to save up some money to do that. Here are some of the pictures!

We flew from SLC to San Fran to Hong Kong to Singapore to Bangkok and it took about 32 hours!!!

What is wrong with these escalators??

First temple of first full day in Bangkok, sooooo hot i'm already dripping in sweat here.

Buddha

Courtyard of Temple

Part of the Grand Palace

Thai people love strange mixed animal guardians

So I wore just a T shirt and Kapris but the guards said my outfit wasn't appropriate thus the sarong!

View of the Temple of the Dawn from the River

The giant head of the Reclining Buddha

On our little river tour we saw this huge Monitor Lizard!

At the top of Temple of the Dawn

Monks Chanting, kind of not supposed to take pictures of them :)

All over the place these coconuts were for sale and they would chop them open and stick a straw in it, so delicious!

Floating Market outside of Bangkok

This was a pretty interesting lunch, no one would eat much but I still thought it all tasted pretty good. Yes I did eat some of this extremely spicy fish.

And now I'm crying it's so spicy.

No idea what kind of fruit/vegetable this is but it looked cool!

No idea what these are either

selling strange fried fish on the side of the road

We flew South to Phuket and then drove north to this village Ban Talae Nok. This is the site of their old school where on the day of the Tsunami the kids were all in the school practicing for a New Years Party. Sadly 16 kids were lost, the school was right on the beach.

This was a Muslim village, apparently muslims believe that dogs are dirty but cats are ok. They were everywhere!

This kid's name was Sofa and he was not shy at all, he would just run and jump onto my back!

On the first day in the village we exchanged languages, this is us trying to sing a little song in Thai about the Mangrove trees, i didn't do very well.

The women of the village make and sell soap.

Teaching infant CPR at the Health Fair

The two RN's of the group! We ended up with a lot on our plate. 9 people came down with food poisoning on the last day in bangkok, kept us running!

Donating the dolls to the village Nurse

Silly kids!

Dressing up in Muslim Garb

We had the opportunity to stay in the village in their homes, here was our room.

The tray of supplies in the clinic, made me think of the 1950s!

We learned how to weave Nipa Palm which they use for their roofs if they are still living in the wooden huts.

This cute little girl is named Nut (Noot) she found this crab on the beach and proceeded to torture a jelly fish with it.

No one warned me about Asain toilets!

The sunset on the beach in Ban Talae Nok

Gibbon Ape being rehabilitated in the wildlife rescue center in the village. They make the most annoying sound, like a car alarm. And of course they start doing that about 5am, right after the rooster has stopped crowing.

This is how I took my showers. Scoop water stand over "toilet" and go!

Hotel room in Khao Lak. After 3 1/2 days in the village we drove and hour south to Khao Lak and stayed in this beach front hotel.

Riding Elephants!!! So much fun.

We took a canoe ride later after the elephants and this is Thailand's version of a mountain, or sheer cliff?

We had some time to kill on the way home with an 18 hour layover in Singapore. So we toured the city. This is a hindu temple. Fortunately the Singapore airport has hotels inside it so we got a room for 8 hours during the night and got some sleep and showers before flying off to home!

River in Singapore

Activity spot in singapore airport.

The trip was such a blast, I took over 600 pictures not to mention the ones I haven't seen from Ali and all the other people on the group so I may post more later!

Salt Lake City Half Marathon!

2009-04-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

So as i've mentioned before, i'm training for the Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back. In preparation for this in June my friend Spencer thought it would be fun to run the Half Marathon (April 18). It was actually a lot of fun and I'm so glad that I can say i've run a 1/2 marathon! Maybe next i'll do a marathon :)

Here is Spence and I at the end!

My friend Kati, who is an awesome runner and amazing friend ran with me for 9 miles!!

Here we are in Liberty park, about 3 miles left!

Somewhere on 8th south, I think.

Just had to try and sprint with all those people watching at the end.

My time was 2 hours and 21 minutes, the goal was 2 hours 30 min so hurray!!

Aloha Maui

2009-04-18T21:52:00.001-07:00

Aloha! For the family trip this year we went to Maui, so much fun!

Dad arranged for us all to get "Leigh-ed" at the airport, they were really pretty.

Mom and Dad at a beach near Kapalua (mom and I ran to this beach and back earlier this same day!) Yes that is what dad wore everyday, he only got burned on his Right hand wrist.

Me at our beach in Kahana (West Maui), good body surfing/tanning beach.

getting fitted for wetsuits before our shore scuba dives, they were very very cool. We saw turtles, sharks and awesome reef.

Family photo at Slaughterhouse Beach, apparently there once was a slaughter house up on the hill? While on this beach we saw a whale jump up out of the water, so very cool.

Ummm, I have no idea what they were doing, being slightly retarded??

Gorgeous sunset on Kanapali Beach

We went on a whale watching boat ride and here is a humpback whale!

Also did some surfing, took a lesson otherwise I never would've gotten up.

Again surfing! We were on pretty small little waves right in Lahaina.

The adults went out to dinner at this super fancy place called Mama's Fish House. This was the view from where we were sitting!

Stephen and Shawn decided to build a sandcastle, who knew a 12 and 15 year old could have so much fun doing that.

Yes we bought almost matching suits, and both ended up wearing them our last day!

Hawaii was a blast, can't wait to go again soon.

Possibly a runner?

2009-03-29T20:38:00.001-07:00

So those who know me know that I ran the ragnar relay wasatch back last year and really enjoyed it. Of course Mom and I decided to start our own team and run it again this year. I'm very excited to do this it's going to be so great! Training is not exactly easy if you're like me and not really a runner. Then add in my crazy friend convincing me to do the Salt Lake HALF Marathon next month (April 18 yikes!) and suffice it to say I've become a runner. Yesterday I managed to do an 8 mile run, farther than I have ever run. The frustrating thing is that I'm still pretty slow but working on it! My nifty cool heart rate monitor informed me that I burned 1074 kcal on that 8 mile run, awesome huh?? The goal this week is to do some 6 mi, 7 mi and a 10 mi run. The question is, I run alone a lot and have a hard time maintaining any kind of a pace so what is the trick??

Spring Time

2009-03-19T01:06:00.000-07:00

I'm loving that it is getting warm and I can go for a run without wearing something to cover my ears! March is of course on of my favorite months of the year...perhaps in part because of my birthday. Yes I'll admit it I am one year older and decided to ring it in by doing one of my favorite activities, SKIING. Sorry this isn't the greatest pic but it's off my phone at the top of the Supreme lift at Alta on my B-day! I got mom to actually go down some black diamond runs which anyone can tell ya takes some guts. Proud of her!! I think Dad was excited that she can do some harder runs now too.

Anyway, Hope everyone else is enjoying the warm weather, gotta love spring!

Because this looks entertaining...and it's 4am

2009-03-05T02:59:00.000-08:00

Ok so my friend Callie tagged me in this one and I thought it looked kinda funny.

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own note, erase my answers, and enter yours. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real, nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You must put the first answer that comes to mind! You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name twice for the boy/girl name one

1. What is your name: Lisa
2. A four Letter Word: List
3. A boy's Name: Leo
4. A girl's Name: Lindsay
5. An occupation: LPN (licensed practical nurse)
6. A color: Lavender
7. Something you wear: lenses (i.e. contacts)
8. A food: Lasagna (mmmm that sounds yummy)
9. Something found in the bathroom: Lotion
10. A place: London baby!
11. A reason for being late: lost your keys
12. Something you shout: Loser (ouch i guess that's mean)
13. A movie title: Love Actually
14. Something you drink: Lemonade
15. A musical group: Linkin Park
16. An animal: Leopard

I tag anyone who wants to do it!

Celine Dion with Lady

2009-02-24T23:33:00.001-08:00

Lady and I after the show! Thanks Lady, it was so much fun!
This was her hot boots outfit, I think I need to go get some of those!!
Celine was absolutely fantastic. The stage had moving conveyor belt and all sorts of moving parts!
And of course her costumes were awesome!!
One of our favorite parts was this gay guy who was just SOOOO into the songs. Notice how no one else is standing, cudos to them for being so into it!
This is a fairly good realistic pic of how far back we actually were.
Lady and I before the show starts, yay!!

This was her opening number, i would load more videos but it just takes too long!

Happy Things Tag

2009-02-23T21:38:00.000-08:00

Write Six things that make you happy and Tag 6 people!

1. My job, I love it even more when my babies do exactly what they are supposed to (meaning that I don't have to save them from trying to die and when I hold them they stop crying).

2. Music, love playing the piano and listening to almost all kinds. Except for the "music" that Shawn tried to make us listen to on the way to Provo one day, yelling does not equal music.

3. Reading of almost all kinds, I am always trying to find a good book to read. I even enjoy reading for work, if the article is interesting enough!

4. Skiing, I try to go as much as possible. It is the only way to make it through winter!

5. Friends, Hanging out with them, going to movies or just hmmm listing all 50 states? I love those nights!

6. Family, I'm sure they're dropping their jaw as they read this. I love those casual nights when we all have dinner together and just have a nice night.

I tag Kate, Jess, Lena, Steph, Kristine, Priscilla

Because I like Free Stuff

2009-02-18T01:10:00.000-08:00

Because I like free stuff
The first five people to comment on this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2. What I create will be just for you.
3. It'll be done this year (hopefully sooner than later.)
4. You will have no clue what it is going to be.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog. The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me you did will win a marvelous homemade gift by me! And I have to be able to contact you somehow!

Good luck!

Tagged!

2009-01-29T04:49:00.000-08:00

Ok Fee, I will do this tag but only because YOU asked!

5 Things I was doing 5 years ago:
Graduating from High School
Going to Oahu and Kuai with my family
Joining Lambda Delta Sigma (oh good old Rho)
Starting school at the Uof U
Enjoying some awesome times at "the house"

5 Things on my to do list for today:
Sleep! (i'm in the middle of a few nightshifts)
Go for a run
Wake up in time to go for said run
Get to work on time
Have a good shift

5 Things I would do with a million dollars:
pay off my debt
buy a new car
pay for grad school (ideally Columbia!)
buy a laptop
invest of course!

5 Places I have lived:
Mesa, Arizona in a closet!
Sugarhouse
My good old present home
possibly the house :)
all of high school was spent in Jess's basement, what a couch!

5 Jobs I have held:
Babysitter
Piano Teacher
Red lobster hostess/busser
CNA/Scrub tech in Labor and Delivery
Registered Nurse in NBICU!!

5 Things I want to be doing in 5 Years:
Graduating from Grad school as a Nurse practitioner
traveling to a third world country
continue to be using by RN license, travel nurse maybe?
Teaching Piano again
finding a job to use that new grad school degree

5 People I tag:
Lori
Lena
Tristen
Kate
Mom

TV shows

2009-01-22T14:03:00.000-08:00

Seeing as I tend to have random hours available I have gotten into some new shows. One being Biggest Loser, I love it!! I'm so morbidly fascinated with their obesity and the awesome goal to lose the weight. Another show I have recently started watching is How I met your Mother. Absolutely hilarious, our friends Jake and Jeron were the ones who recommended it. I'm still in the first season but loving it!

Happy Holidays...

2009-01-07T20:54:00.000-08:00

Well I hope that everyone had a great Christmas, New Years, and everything in between! Ours was great, I spent a lot of time with the fam which was just entertaining. We went and saw The Day the Earth Stood Still on Christmas eve as a fam and can I just say there is a reason there were only 7 people in the theater, lame movie don't see it!! I had to work Christmas eve night but it was a nice shift and went by very quickly. Christmas morning was fun, i was surpised to get home at 7:15 am and find that no one was awake! My awesome parents got me a new digital camera, which I love pictures to come don't you worry.

I tried to spend any moment not working skiing, and so far have been up to Alta 6 times, sweet! My Uncle and his two boys came down and skiied like maniacs so I went with them a few times. They convinced me to try out some crazy cool runs that I otherwise would probably not have tried on my own. Can anyone say West Rustler?? Very steep, but not nearly as bad as High rustler which I am just too much of a wuss to try!

Everyone has been moaning about going back to work and school but I never really had it off which was sort of nice, but I would've enjoyed a few weeks off! Oh well, I knew what I was getting into with this career way before I ever started it.

So I joined Spencer and Jess's Tackle the Tower team and am asking all of you to please donate just $5.00 to my cause! Go to this website https://www.mrsnv.com/evt/e01/pldg/search.jsp?id=2282 and then enter in my name and you can do it all online. It goes towards all the many things the Lung Association does, including Asthma Camp!! Thanks for at least looking at the site first :) before ignoring my innocent little request.

Christmas Traditions

2008-12-13T04:20:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting here at work staring out the window hoping it will start snowing. There is supposedly a big storm coming in, I wish it would hurry up! I love when it snows, not such a fan of driving in it but love how it makes everything look and LOVE to ski in it! One great part of Christmas time is that my Uncle and his boys come down for a week just to ski, which gives me some built in ski buddies much better than the solo trips.

My family doesn't have a ton of traditions, growing up my mom worked some part of christmas and so we have always stayed close to home for as long as I can remember. There is the traditional family get together with whoever might be here in Utah which is always nice, and of course always includes yummy treats (grandma cookies, yum!).

Well now Mom doesn't have to work on holidays anymore, just in time for me to work them. So once again we'll be staying right here but honestly I think that's perfect. We always go see a new movie on Christmas eve, eat munchie food all night and just relax. The best part is that Stephen still wants to get up at the crack of dawn to open presents, but is once again being thwarted by someone working till seven am that morning so he gets to wait till I get home around seven thirty, poor kid right?? After presents and all that jazz we always have home made "egg mcmuffins". All in all great family time, gotta love 'em!

Fun New Toy!

2008-12-10T14:22:00.000-08:00

So I was envying a few of my friends new phones. Each of them had recently gotten some kind of a blackberry which looked very nice. I personally had a great phone but was having some issues with the fact that every few weeks something new decided to stop working, in fact i have had to have the stupid thing replaced twice in the past 6 months! Anyway, last week I was sitting at work surfing the internet and decided to start looking at new phones when lo and behold I come to find out it's time for a free upgrade anyway! So I took advantage of that and a rebate offer and got....a new Blackberry Pearl. It is so sweet, I can check my email, get on the internet, have a detailed calendar and do all my usual phone stuff plus a million things I haven't figured out yet. I love it! Sadly I'm at work and the computer won't let me post a picture of it, I'll do it later on a normal computer.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T02:19:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving happens to be one of my favorite holidays mostly because it is completely centered on eating. Our family tends to make way too much food, which is great for left-overs all week! We always have at least 4-5 pies to choose from. This year is no exception there will be SIX different kinds of pies to chose from for only 9 adults and one kid/teenager. Yikes, i think maybe we went a little overboard! Thanks so much to Aunt Cathy and Mom for making all the yummy treats and fixings, I'm already salivating sitting here at work and it's only 3:30!!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Go UTAH!!!

2008-11-22T22:31:00.001-08:00

Our fantastic University of Utah Football Team just made history...again!!! Utah 48-BYU 24

12-0, 8-0, Mountain West Conference Champs, BCS busters headed for one awesome bowl game!!

And Thank you BYU QB Max Hall, for having one of your worst games ever just in time for the end to our perfect season.

New York City!

2008-11-21T19:46:00.000-08:00

So the New York trip was a complete and total blast!! Thanks so much to my Lady Slade for coming out with me, wandering all over the city and just having a ball!

Tricks to sleeping all day when working all night...

2008-11-21T02:27:00.000-08:00

1) ear plugs are a must. I don't know how I ever used to sleep without them!!

2) ok so i can't wear things on my face so the whole mask thing is out but you must have a dark room, i love my basement!!

3) turn phone off or on complete silent, too many times i forget and well that just isn't good for anyone involved.

4) if necessary enlist the help of pharmaceuticals (benadryl is my new friend, but only when absolutey necessary).

5) For some unknown reason by the time i actually get home I am completely wired, so playing quiet music and reading the latest book seems to be a must these days!

6) Do not drink Coke after 3 am, this will not help you stay awake no matter what you tell yourself. Does seem to cause problems when you want to be asleep and instead are making numerous trips to the bathroom... ALL MORNING. Grrrr!

Ruth's Diner

2008-09-25T21:18:00.000-07:00

So Jessica and I went trekking up Immigration canyon in search of some yummy food for lunch today. We decided Ruth's Diner would be a great place, she had been there and loved it. I was totally up for it since I have never gotten to go. The food was delicous but we both just had to laugh at our server. He was one of those people that you just have to wonder how they have gotten all the way through life alive, he would come to the table start a sentance and then run to another customer, wierd?? Then when it was very clear that we were finished and said, "no thanks" to any desserts it took him a very long awkward silent minute to then finally hand us the check. All in all completely entertaining!

Fall

2008-09-14T15:09:00.000-07:00

Can i just say how nice it is to enjoy this whole autumn season without the whole classes and tests hanging over my head? I am thoroughly enjoying this month so far. To make it even better Jess, Spence, Nik, Lena, Seth and I went to the Utah State Fair on opening night and saw all the entertaining things, including the ridiculous scrapbook constest winners. I'm sorry but I think I could've done better than some of those, and that is coming from someone who doesn't even scrapbook. Jess, Spence, CJ, My cousin and his roomy and I then trekked over to the Greek Festival for some deliciously overpriced Greek food. I did manage to score a free loukamathe thanks to an old friend from HS. The best news however is that the Bodies exhibit is coming on the 19th and Healthcare workers get in free, sweet! Lets all go!!

Camp Wyatt Fun

2008-08-12T16:12:00.001-07:00

Camp Wyatt was in my opinion a total success, the kids had a blast and I think the rest of us did too. This is a camp for kids ages 8-12 with asthma, they come to camp to learn about their asthma and have a fun week at the same time! It was extremely tiring to be in charge and going back to work the very weekend we wrapped up was killer hard, but hey ya have to go to camp right?? It was a great experience to be more involved this year and I really did love being there. Here are a few of the pics from camp!

I PASSED!!!!!!!!

2008-07-12T00:36:00.000-07:00

This is a very quick note but I just found out that I passed NCLEX!! I am officially a Registered Nurse! This has been a lifetime goal and I am so excited to finally be a Registered Nurse and be able to practice nursing!!!

Bring on July!

2008-07-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

I thought once I graduated I was done with classes and tests and all that fun stuff. So I start my new job up at PCMC in the NBICU and what have I done for the first week and a half? Sat in class, taken pre tests and begun to seriously stress about my boards a week from tomorrow. Not as fun and great as I was hoping for to say the least. The good part is that as I sit in 8 hours of class each day I am getting paid nursing hourly salary instead of paying some lame school to be there. Much better right? I finally get to do some actual shifts on the unit this thursday and saturday. Nervous doesn't even begin to describe the feeling about those but I'm sure I'll end up being just fine. Even worse are the nerves I have about my boards next week, I'm terrified that I'm going to just walk in and bomb it!! I guess we'll see what happens, right?

Ragnar Relay

2008-06-27T23:24:00.001-07:00

Well I actually managed to do something involving physical fitness. Last weekend I ran the Ragnar Relay Wasatch Back. This is a 180 mile relay race from Logan to Park City. There are twelve runners in each team broken up two cars of six each, the first six together always and the last six together always. You each run three different legs over about a 24 hour period. We started in Logan on June 20th at 1 pm and finished saturday evening at 6:30pm, crazy huh? I was a great experience and I can't wait to do it next year!!

Above are some of my fellow team mates cheering me on during my awful, hot first leg.

Finally finished with leg one and handing the slap stick off to mom!

We didn't take any pics during the night legs so here is leg three!

Hurray I finished!!

Seriously one of the coolest things I think I've ever done, can't wait for the stress fracture to heal so I can get back to exercising and getting in real shape to kick this race's butt next year.

Last CNA shift

2008-06-15T03:55:00.000-07:00

So yes I'm writing at four am, but this is a momentous occasion. I am about to finish my last Cna shift ever!!! I have been a cna since June 2005 and now i'm glad to say I can stop. Lucky for me I only had to do the nursing home scene for about one month and then I scored a cna job at Cottonwood Hospital Labor and Delivery (thanks to mom!). I have met some fantastic people and mostly I really enjoyed the job, scrubbing in on Caesearian sections weighing and measuring newborns etc is a great thing, the cleaning up after all that SUCKS. Fortunately this part of life is over and now I can do what I really want to do, take care of the babies!

Disneyland Princess Trip

2008-05-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

So about a year ago my mom came home from work talking about her friends and their daughters going on trips to disneyland. The moms and daughters went when the girl was around 9-10 years old without any of the rest of the family, cute idea right? Well my mom realized that she never did anything like this for me and so she decided that it's never too late. We finally went on our Princess Trip right after graduation. Staying in the Marriott right next to the park for 4 days, all we did was run around like two little kids! We even bought little tiaras, which I have to say was hilarious. All in all it was a very fun trip, we rode all the rides every day two or three times. On one of the days we met up with my cousin and her family and so we even ventured into the scary stroller land (also known as fantasy land).

Here are my cute little cousin's! They were not big fans of Mr. Toad's wild ride, and do you all remember that at the end of the ride he dies and goes to HELL? No wonder they were scared.

Oh yeah, I ran into Burt while running to get fast passes for a ride, had to get a picture!!This is about as relaxed as mom ever looked on a ride, I think she was trying not to throw up every time.
Yes we even ate at the Princess Luncheon over in California Adventure. I think we were the oldest people there that didn't have little kids in tow.

Here at last...Graduation!

2008-05-10T14:10:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it finally happened, I actually graduated with my degree in nursing! It still doesn't even feel real, it just feels like we're out for the summer again. Maybe it will hit me when I start my new job at PCMC's Newborn ICU in June, but who knows! Graduation was fun, wierd to be all dressed up in those hideous black gowns but still all in all a great experience.

Here is me with my Diploma, oh wait they haven't given us that yet! But it sure does make it look official. My sweet best friend Jessica came too, even though she had to sit through two more the next day. (Her own and her husband's)

To the right are the Nursing Girls, we made it through!! I don't think any of us thought we'd be friends by the end, it started with just sitting next to each other during class and now well need I say more?

It's over, and I can't believe it went so fast. For months we've been saying, "Yeah I graduate in May." blah blah blah but actually having May come and walking across that stage was fantastic. Now it's on to work and in a few years graduate school.

No longer a Senator

2008-04-27T00:18:00.000-07:00

It is funny to look back now and remember a year and some odd months ago when the whole campaigning processs started and I was just so excited to run for the Senator as the College of Nursing. I now take this opportunity to thank those of you who sacriced a saturday morning to help put up silly posters and even donated some money to my cause. This year has been a great experiences and very eye-opening in respect to ASUU. I've always been very involved at the Institute, rush officer and then Vice Pres in my sorority I really never thought about getting involved on campus any more than just that. When I was approached to run I was completely surprised but I'm so glad I did it.

So imagine how surprised I was when I actually won and then had to start doing this Senatorial job! It started immediately with an emergency session in May to approve a change in the 1.38 million dollar ASUU budget, talk about being thrown into the fire. I had no idea how much money gets spent in ASUU on so very many random things. Of course much of it goes right back to the students through bills that we as senators write for them to cover expenses for conferences, academic activities on campus etc. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, even though some of our meetings lasted more than three hours!

We had our Senate Banquet last week to welcome the new senators and say goodbye to the old. I was somewhat forced to provide some music for the event to help stall everyone until certain members of ASUU could be present. Myself and the Fine Arts Senator, a concert violinist played for about twenty minutes. It kind of made me miss playing, something I rarely get to do these days. It's been a great year but I'm glad that it's over.

Last day of Undergraduate Class :)

2008-04-17T19:31:00.000-07:00

I feel like I never have anything to say on here, but oh well here goes another post. So today was my last day of class for my undergraduate career. To be honest I don't know what I was picturing in my head but it was pretty anti-climactic. I am so happy to be just two weeks away from graduation, it still doesn't feel real. Maybe it will once I put on that cap and gown and walk across the stage. Sadly this isn't the end of school, when I start my new job at Primary Children's in June they put you in an ICU class twice week with tests and everything. Then of course there is the massive NCLEX board examination, YIKES!! Oh and then there is graduate school in a few years. But still, the end of undergraduate hoop jumping is a big moment. Hooray!

25 Days left!!

2008-04-06T21:03:00.000-07:00

So I know it has been quite a while since my last post, so so sorry! I am no finished with the VA psychiatric rotation and I couldn't be happier. I was so excited as I went through the 3 hour "clearance" process that I couldn't stop smiling.

Spring Break was absolutely fantastic. I went down to Vegas with my younger brother Shawn and hung out with the family and cousins. Soon I will post some pictures of our newest and most adorable cousin!! His name is Noah and he is 4 months old but looks like he is about two years old, it's so crazy.

Anyway, tonight I am doing my last capstone shift here at IMC in the NICU. I brought them homemade brownies (gasp I can actually cook!) which they have all been thoroughly enjoying. I feel somewhat sad that I'm already done with capstone but at the same time so very excited to start on the next part of life with a career up at primaries for a few years.

Spring!

2008-03-11T16:17:00.000-07:00

I am so excited that the weather is starting to warm up just a titch! Sometimes I think we don't even realize that we've become slightly depressed with all the cold and dreary weather until our skin feels those first warm rays of the sun. I know that I am definitely ready for it to be warm, because that means that school is almost out and that it is time to do all those fun summertime activities. Until it is totally warm here I am running away next week to Las Vegas. It has got be warmer down there right?

Psych Nursing...yuck!

2008-03-03T18:49:00.001-08:00

So today was my first experience with the VA hospital system. Not a good first impression. Our wonderful US government's bureaucracy is alive and well even in this hospital system. Not only did it take 8 hours to do what could have been finished in 2-3 they sent us to all four corners of the VA campus-could it get more complicated? Yes, just take a jaunt through the underground tunnels and one thought comes to mind "horror movie waiting to happen". I mean you have the crazies floating around, then add in unsuspecting college age kids walking down the creepy dark hallway and well, lets just say I won't be walking through those tunnels again any time soon. Sadly today was only day one, tomorrow the real fun begins. We actually have to pretend like we know what we're doing and be "psych nurses". I'm expected to lead a focus group on wednesday about anything I want, i.e. the schizophrenic group's favorite colors or maybe I should ask each of their personalities that question?? Oh dear, I don't think I'm going to be very good at this.

Senioritis

2008-02-26T16:34:00.000-08:00

Remember way back when in high school? The days started to get warm, you knew you were close to graduation and well the homework just started piling up. Sadly it's only february and I have a serious case of senioritis. Not only do I have a psychiatric nursing test on thursday, but a million other things to do and instead of preparing or doing I am blogging! I am soooooo ready for it to be warm and for school to be out, FOREVER! Or for two-three years until graduate school. But seriously, can't school just be done now? Are we really going to learn anything that terribly important in the next 8 1/2 weeks?

Ok, ok, ok

2008-02-23T14:45:00.000-08:00

So i finally got a blog. I had this theory about everyone who has a blog must be married, which is still 9 times out of 10 the case, but then i found some of my single friends and realized i was not quite right. I am sitting at work at the moment, gotta love getting paid to blog and surf the web, and thought that it was about time I start my own blog.

I absolutely cannot wait for school to be over, the idea of not going back to school in the fall makes me slightly giddy. It is time to experience what it is like to not earn money just to turn around and give it back to that darn U of U.