Adventures in finding my way through life

Week Twenty

2012-02-12T22:51:00.000-08:00

Wow, twenty weeks! Can you believe it? I lost 2.8 pounds this week which brings my total weight loss to 35 pounds so far. Awesome! And I've received many compliments lately on how good I look. What's funny is that this is the weight I was when I joined Weight Watchers six years ago. Oh well. Better late than never I guess! I took a photo this week but I didn't have a chance to clean the mirror first, so I apologize for that... It's also slightly blurry but I was in kind of a hurry...

Once I reach my goal, I will have to do a side by side of when I started. It's fun to look now and see that I do look different. The skirt that I wore to church (what I'm wearing in the photo) was one I bought a while ago and couldn't fit into (I actually ripped the slit in the back a little when I tried it on) but now it's almost too big. Love it! I'm going to have to start buying some new clothes here pretty soon.

On to the grad school application... I think I am now DONE with my personal statement. I'm going to have a couple more people look at it and then submit it. I'm also going to email my old boss right after I post this. ALMOST THERE! YAY! I found another program to apply to in case I don't get into the original one. I may apply to four and hope that one accepts me. This week it will happen!!! Yay for positive progress!

Week Nineteen

2012-02-05T22:21:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning and couldn't stand to swallow... My throat was sore, AGAIN. I am getting yet another cold!!! I swear, I get one a month it seems! GRRR!!! Dang kids are going to kill me, literally! So I went back to bed, which means no picture. No worries though, I only lost .8 lbs this week so I pretty much look the same.

I don't quite have my statement of purpose done but I'm close! My dear friend Arlee is helping me tweak it. She helps high school students apply to college and I'm thinking the personal statements are all pretty much the same thing. I actually came up with an awesome paragraph on Friday night (it's safe to say my decent into spinster hood is complete!) and all I need to do now is rearrange it a little. YAY! I thought the GRE would be the difficult part of all this... BUT I'm almost done! HOORAY! This week for sure!

I'm beginning to suspect that I am gluten sensitive... Bah! Not the good stuff! I've already figured out that I'm a little lactose intolerant but am suspecting there is more I can no longer stomach... I looked at gluten free stuff at the store yesterday and it was way too expensive to purchase just yet. Maybe next pay check...

Week Eighteen

2012-01-29T22:09:00.000-08:00

I believe I was correct last week and the WW scale owes me an apology... I lost 3.4 pounds "this week"... Which means I probably really lost about 1.7 last week and 1.7 this week. Now I remember why I weigh in on Saturday mornings first thing! Also when I weigh at home (minus clothes of course) I now have a normal BMI! YAY! I set my goal a couple of weeks ago and still have 15 more pounds to go until I reach it but I've done pretty well so far. I think I'm going to have to start buying some new clothes as well. My work pants are literally falling off... Here is my pic for this week. If you think I look tired, it's because I was. 9:00 AM church should be against the law!

I got off early twice again this week. And no I didn't exercise but I did work on my personal statement more. I think I've gotten to the point where I can say no more which hopefully is good enough. They put a limit of 1500 words and I have 770... Hmmm... I think I'm ready to have other people take a look at it and critique it for me before I finally submit it. My goal was to have it in by the beginning of February so that gives me a week. Better get to gettin'! (sorry for the slang)

Work was not nearly as bad this week. For reasons I'd rather not discuss here... Isn't it interesting what you get in life sometimes? You want something and ask repeatedly for it, don't receive it, but get something else that makes it okay??? This doesn't always happen of course but it is happening to me right now. I did not make it to the temple this week so maybe I'll try for twice this week. I spent Saturday cleaning out my drawers and closet. Even though there is still a lot of stuff I should probably toss or donate, it is much better! I swear I need a hoarders intervention! Things I can't part with: my collection of Yankees t-shirts. I took a pic of the ones I pulled out of the drawer that haven't seen the light of day in years:

Of course I can't part with them, even though I can't wear most of them (due to holes in all of the armpits for some reason)... Especially since Pettitte is no longer playing. I'm kind of wishing now that I had a Posada shirt since he just retired. I will definitely buy a Rivera shirt this year while I still have the chance. One thing I'd love to have happen with all of them is to create a t-shirt quilt, seen here: http://pinterest.com/pin/100627372893857194/. I don't sew though, at all. Anybody want to make me one???

Week Seventeen

2012-01-22T22:36:00.000-08:00

Not a great week by any account... I had a mandatory training on Saturday morning so I was unable to weigh in or attend WW that day so decided to weigh in on Thursday night. Now I know why I weigh in on Saturday mornings... I haven't eaten anything yet and also haven't been chasing kids around all day getting swollen/bloated. I gained 0.8 lbs. And who knows, maybe I did gain weight. I haven't had a gain yet. I've been following the eating properly but still not exercising enough. I may sign up to do a 5K with a coworker so maybe that will help. I just don't know how to get motivated to do the things I need to. I got off work early twice this last week (and had Monday off) and only wrote a little of my personal statement and no exercise.

That's another story in and of itself... Work is becoming more and more of a challenge to go to... I begin to dread going back every Sunday at about 6 PM. I know I'm supposed to go to graduate school and that's why I can't find a job I like but I can't even get another remedial job I slightly dislike less??? I've put in applications... nothing. One job I figured I had a pretty good in for (my friend is a manager there)... nothing. I guess maybe this is where the motivation is supposed to be coming from for me to apply to grad school???

No pic this week. I wasn't even going to post but I wanted to complain. Let's hope this week goes by faster...

Week Sixteen

2012-01-16T22:03:00.000-08:00

I didn't take a photo on Sunday but I did take one today... So I don't look nearly as nice as I did yesterday. Oh well. I lost 1.8 pounds this past week, bringing my grand total of weight lost to 30 pounds! YAY! I still want to lose about 20 more but I'm only a few pounds away from no longer being considered overweight. AWESOME! Here is this week's photo. I even smiled per Julie's request (though I'm not sure she's going to be reading this anymore)

I did not get what I wanted to accomplish done this week either. This is becoming a pattern... Or maybe it's how I always am. I literally procrastinate so much I might actually miss my own death. That should actually have been my New Year resolution: procrastinate less! I'm thinking I need a week off so I can get the cleaning all out of the way and work on the things I really need to get done (grad school application). I did make it to the temple again so I'm two for two there. YAY!

Here's to hoping for a more productive rest of the week!

Week Fifteen

2012-01-08T21:51:00.000-08:00

I figured it out(the week that is)! Admittedly it wasn't too hard since I weigh in every week and they give you a weight tracker. I did miss two weeks though since WW was closed but it didn't seem to negatively impact me too much, I lost 4.6 lbs in those two weeks. My leader asked me how I did it and honestly I have no idea since I ate what I wanted on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve and New Years Day. She asked if I worked out a lot which I said no to (because I didn't) but I do have a pretty physically demanding job. I am constantly breaking a sweat there (my apologies to my coworkers, the parents, and small children I work with). I have almost lost 30 pounds! Wow! I'm only 5 away from having a normal BMI again but I would like to lose another 20 pounds. I have definitely decided I need to work out more though because I keep picking up every cold virus imaginable! When I die, my first question will be: "what was the purpose of the cold virus?"

No photo this week because I forgot until after I took a nap and then I'm a horrifying sight... I probably look pretty close to the same as last week.

On to other things besides weight loss. I need one more referral letter to apply to graduate school. Anyone want to write me one? I think referral letters are slightly ridiculous anyway but whatever, everywhere requires three. So three I will get (eventually). The deadline to apply to Colorado State was the 5th so obviously I didn't make it in time. They weren't my first choice anyway, but nice to have a back up I guess. I still haven't completely written my personal statement but I at least have an idea of the angle I'm going to take and I've written parts of it. Definitely working on that more this week. I was finally able to get my transcripts sent from SLCC so now all I need is that other referral and my own statement. Almost there!

I was able to make it to the temple last Monday. The Salt Lake temple is one of the few temples open for a little while on Monday mornings so I went on my day off. I barely made it in though. I definitely misjudged the amount of time it takes to get down there! And I also didn't take the construction on North Temple into account. Next time I will take a different route. This week I will probably try to make it to the Jordan River temple. It's the temple district I live in and it takes less time. Not to mention, way more times to choose from.

That's it for now. I'm hoping to actually accomplish these things this week! It WILL happen!

Week something or other

2012-01-01T22:34:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I've lost track. It's not totally my fault though... Weight Watchers has been closed for the last two weeks so I haven't weighed in for two weeks... Should be interesting when I step back on the scale this Saturday. I did manage to take a pic today even though I didn't get on the scale (even at home)

They were all slightly on the blurry side, I'm not really sure why. But that one was the best one.

So this year I don't really have resolutions. I'm already in the middle of losing weight so I won't have that standard one. I do still need to get into shape though. I am almost done applying to graduate school (bah, why is writing a personal statement so difficult?). These were my resolutions from last year. It took me most of the year to even get started on them but I'm so close to completing all of them. The one resolution or goal I have set is to go to the temple once a week. I haven't been in months and living in Salt Lake, there's one pretty much every direction you turn. I definitely need to take better advantage of that while I still can.

2011 was an awesome year for the first half (for the most part). The second half not so much... It seemed like there was death, illness, or just general sorrow for the last half. But I made it through another year. I probably say this about every year, but I have an excellent feeling about 2012. Not sure why yet, but I feel like amazing things will happen this year. And I for one, cannot wait to see what they are.

I hope the same holds true to all of you (yes the two of you that read this)! Happy New Year!

Weeks Eleven and Ten

2011-12-18T23:01:00.000-08:00

Bah, so I missed another week... and there's no picture for this week. I'm not really sure what's going on but I just haven't been feeling well lately. I went to church last week and was pretty much miserable the entire time. This last week was also pretty much miserable. I woke up and started getting ready to go to church today but decided against it. Hopefully this doesn't ruin my Christmas...

Anyway, on to the numbers. Week 10 I lost either 1.6 or 1.7 (I can't remember and I don't want to go get my weight tracker). Week 11 I lost 3 pounds... As previously mentioned, I have not been feeling well so I'm sure that's how that happened but that's the most I've lost so far. I've been planning to treat Christmas the same way I treated Thanksgiving: eat whatever but with this going on that might not be a possibility.

Hopefully this stops soon and I'm back to normal. Which includes taking pics and blogging...

Week Ten

2011-12-04T23:33:00.000-08:00

Despite my last several posts about needing to exercise more, I have yet to do it... Unless you count work and believe me, I'm moving around a LOT! My back has been killing me this week. To make matters worse, we are losing our health insurance at the end of the month since not enough of my coworkers have signed up for it. Grrr.... I HATE health insurance and am seriously considering moving somewhere with socialized medicine so I don't have to keep putting up with this B.S. I realize this is a controversial topic but you try going without health insurance while having "pre-existing conditions" and then come and talk to me about how much better the health care in this country is. Do it, I dare you.

But I digress. This is about weight loss, not politics. This week I lost 1.8 pounds, again. I also hit my 10% weight loss (and then some). I'm about 30 pounds away from what I'd like to be but about 20 from no longer being considered overweight. Here's the pic for the week:

This post is so short because I'm tired and need to get plenty of sleep to tolerate what I do all day... I hope you all have a good week.

Week Nine

2011-11-27T23:42:00.000-08:00

YAY! Two weeks in a row! WOOT WOOT! Hopefully I can keep this trend going next week.

This week was Thanksgiving (as you know) and I made the decision to not track on that day. I decided to have small portions (which is typical anyway since there's so much food) and skip things I didn't totally love anyway. In WW the Saturday before they gave the tip to make sure to eat breakfast and not sit down at dinner ravenously hungry. So I got up and made myself some toast using my double fiber bread and brummel and brown spread. We then ate lunch/dinner around 2:00 PM. We had pie a little later but I didn't eat anything after that. I was simply not hungry.

My leader that week asked how many of us would show up and weigh in on Saturday. I think pretty much everybody raised their hands and everybody seemed to be there yesterday. I personally lost 1.8 pounds and as a group we lost thirty-something pounds. Here's my pic for the week:

That night, my Mom and I did something we have never done before... and will probably never do again: We went shopping at 9:00 PM on Thanksgiving. Stores are opening earlier and earlier all the time and this year they all opened up WAY earlier than usual. We started at Toys R US which took us two and a half hours, most of which was spent standing in line. My Mom bought two toys for my nephews and saved a total of $40... Not worth it. Then we went to Kohls which opened at midnight. There was no standing outside in the cold there! They let everyone in and the check out line wasn't nearly as crazy. I wanted to find a gift for my little brother for his birthday this week but they didn't have it. They had one left of what I wanted: a Chi ceramic hair straightener. They're normally $140 and I got one for $70. I was on the fence about buying it since it is kind of expensive (although a really good deal) but it was the only one there so I grabbed it. My hair feels s LOT softer now! That was definitely my Christmas gift to myself this year and I don't regret it. I did run into EVERYBODY I went to high school with though which was not enjoyable...

I went to the Salt Lake Running Company and bought an exercise shirt (another good deal) so I'm hoping that will motivate me to start moving. Exercise is definitely on my list for this week. Also on my list: WORK ON GRAD SCHOOL APPLICATION. I was having a hard time deciding when to apply for and I've decided on Spring since January 3rd is just too soon to start. However, I still need to finish and submit my application.

Weeks Seven and Eight

2011-11-21T00:08:00.000-08:00

All right so a couple of things. I was off on my weeks on the last post. It was weeks five and six, five being the week I didn't have a picture of. Also, I have clearly missed yet another week. I actually completely forgot to take a pic.

I had had a cold which then turned into a lovely case of laryngitis. Don't get me wrong, I get colds a lot so I can handle them pretty well. I know people who get one and act like they're dying... If you're one of those people: Take some Dayquil and get over it! In fact, it always irritated people when I worked in offices since I would come to work with a cold. I don't have 2-3 day colds. Mine last usually a week minimum and this one has been going on for over two weeks now (I did have a two day reprieve in there but I'm not really counting it). I had a cold when I lived in Denver that lasted for over three weeks! Anyway, you get the point... But I've never had laryngitis before. It was surprisingly painful, even more so than strep, and I've also had that twice in the last year. (I clearly need to work in a less germy environment) So I spent my time not speaking and staying inside for the most part, and completely forgot about blogging. (By the way, I'm mostly feeling better, but my throat has been itchy today)

Back to the weight loss. In week seven, I lost 2.8 pounds. I lost that much in week one but that's the most after that. Week eight was not as exciting, I lost 0.6 pounds. My leader said that was good after having such a big loss the week before. This week I definitely need to step up the exercise. Especially since Thursday is Thanksgiving and I don't plan to stick to the plan too closely that day... Plus I think that exercising will help with all of the illness. Overall, I've lost 15.4 pounds. I think it's starting to look obvious in my face a little. Here's my pic for the week:

It should be interesting to see what the scale says for this week, but I'm going to stick to the plan every day other than Thursday and not overdo it on the Thanksgiving feast.

Weeks Six and Seven

2011-11-11T23:42:00.000-08:00

Okay so I suck. Not only did I not post in week six, I didn't take a pic of myself. I was planning on having someone take a pic of me in my Halloween costume, which was awesome but it never happened...

I was A-Rod for Halloween. I printed fake money which was coming out of all of my pockets and had bandaids on my knee and thumb (since these injuries kept him out for most of the season this year). I wore my Yankees hat and bought an A-Rod t-shirt (if replica jerseys weren't $75+ I would have purchased one) and painted black lines under my eyes. It was even more awesome than I just described but unfortunately Utahans didn't get it... It's funny people, believe me... (A-Rod is the highest paid player in baseball making about $27 million a year)

Anyway, back to the weight loss, week six I lost 1.8 pounds bringing my total weight loss to 9.6 pounds which happens to be 5% of my starting weight. (I hesitated to tell you that since now you can figure out how much I weighed and what I currently weigh but it's out there now so I guess I'll just have to deal with it...)

Week seven I did manage to take a pic. My normal photo day is Sunday (since I look the nicest on Sundays) but I had a MASSIVE headache this week and didn't go to church or do my or makeup... not a pretty sight... So I took a pic on Monday after work. I work with babies so I always slick my hair back to avoid having it ripped out of my head. Not to mention, to avoid picking up lice... (I work in a germ factory and any communicable disease or condition that comes in spreads like wildfire! I have yet another cold... Thanks for coughing in my face small children! We will be having a public health intervention on Monday.) I lost 2.2 pounds bringing my total weight loss to 11.8 pounds. It's nice to have a double digit number finally and I think it's starting to become a little more noticeable. Here's the pic:

My favorite thing for the weeks is Pinterest. If you haven't joined yet, DO IT! It's awesome! It's also a huge waste of time so if you don't have hours and hours on end to spend doing nothing but playing online, then maybe you should ignore my advice. My mom was given several large butternut squash that my aunt had grown and when I saw a recipe on there for black bean and squash burritos, I had to make them! I had gone back to opening at work and was getting off usually by 2:30 so I decided to make them on Monday. When I described to my little brother what I was going to be making he said "ew". But when he tried them, he loved them! And they were fantastic! He loved them so much that he requested I make them on Tuesday. We had so much left over squash I decided to make them again. That recipe is a keeper! Unfortunately I only opened for a week before they switched me back to closing which means I won't get off until 6:00... My cooking new and potentially more time consuming things has come to an end. But it also means I don't have to get up at 5:00 AM. It's definitely good and bad.

I will be weighing in again tomorrow (technically today since it's already after midnight). I'm a little more concerned about this week, not because I ate terribly but it's been a horribly emotional week and I didn't eat enough food which can send your body into starvation mode. I guess the scale will tell in a few hours. I won't be able to stay for the meeting though since I have a funeral to go to. I will be better at taking my pic and posting on Sunday this next week, I promise!

Week Four

2011-10-23T23:28:00.000-07:00

I'm back on schedule as promised but it's not all good news. This last week was kind of a rough one for me and the scale showed it. I didn't work out, at all. The kids at work were CRAZY! I've never wanted to just walk out in all my life! My cousin's four month old baby passed away (it was actually the week before but they had his viewing this week).

They had a luncheon at the church after the viewing and of course they had several different types of funeral potatoes. These are my absolute favorite part of the funeral dinner/luncheon. (My cousin insisted I must also have some of the jello salads but luckily I hate jello and I'm trying to lose weight. Oh Utah and it's weird traditions!) I figured the funeral potatoes would be about a billion points so my Mom and I only had about a 1/2 a cup. It still cost us 7 points. Add that to the slice of ham and roll and you're looking at like 14 points. I was STARVING that day. Next time I will skip the funeral potatoes and have a cookie instead.

But back to the weight loss, I only lost 0.4 lbs. It is definitely better than a weight gain but I was very disappointed. And yes that means that as far as WW is concerned, I'm still obese. I weighed myself this morning (after using the bathroom, completely naked, and before eating or drinking anything) and I was actually about 2 lbs lighter so I'm going to go ahead and say I'm no longer obese! Today was stake conference so I didn't take a pic until after church which will explain the awful hair and dark circles under my eyes... Seriously, I should not have to leave my house at 8:00 to make it to a 10:00 meeting and then have to sit there in a dark room for two hours and be expected to stay awake!!!

This week I'm going to aim for making it to Zumba at least twice and then maybe walking on the treadmill or outside in the morning on the other days. It has been somewhat nice for October but something tells me that that won't last long...

Weeks Two and Three

2011-10-20T23:52:00.000-07:00

One week into my new blogging and I didn't even keep up... But it wasn't totally my fault. The power cord to my laptop died. This is the second time this has happened to me. Apparently Dell is fully aware of the problem but refuses to fix it. So I was stuck forking out $70 again to replace it. I will DEFINITELY buy an Apple next time...

Anyway, week two I lost 2.2 lbs. I definitely should have cleaned the mirror before taking this shot! My apologies to everyone. One thing I rediscovered that week was Zumba. I had purchased a Groupon that was about to expire so I decided to use it. It was so much fun! I only made it once that week since my friend from Colorado came to visit me briefly and let's be honest, I'm lazy.

Week three I lost 2.4 lbs. Which brings my grand total to 7.4 lbs lost. I'm almost not obese anymore!!! One more pound and I'll be back in the overweight BMI category. Oh the things that excite me... You still can't see too much of a difference but maybe in a few more weeks.

I had great intentions of attending more Zumba this week. I went on Monday and my knee started hurting again. Yes, the same one that was hurting me a few months ago when I was simply walking briskly. I don't know what the problem is. I really do wonder if I am too heavy and need to stick to low impact exercises like walking until I'm thinner. One rediscovery from this week was the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies I got from my WW leader five years ago. One can of pumpkin, spice cake mix, 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips. That's it. They were one point a piece and since it seems that everything went up about one point, they're probably two points a piece.

I should be back on track posting on Sunday. I may start going to a different meeting since I hate early mornings but I haven't found one that will work for me this week. Maybe next week...

The Weight Loss Journey

2011-10-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

So as I mentioned in my last post, I just joined Weight Watchers. I had participated in the program five years ago at work and lost 25-30 pounds (I can't remember the exact amount). I kept it off for a little while (almost a year) and then slowly the weight started coming back on. I had gotten to be really skinny so when I put on 10 pounds, it wasn't that big of a deal. But here I am five years later, 60 pounds heavier.... (Wow! I just calculated that and can't believe it!) I have 35 pounds to lose until I'm in the healthy weight range again so this could take a while...

The point of all this is that I thought I would start posting about my journey here every week. This will include a photo of me, how things are going, and some insight I learned from the previous week.

Since I just started, I will put some before pics:

This was me (and some of my family members) at a family reunion this July:

This was me (and more of my family members) at my brother and sister-in-law's sealing in June:

I may or may not have gained even more weight since these photos but I probably looked pretty close to the same.

Here I am after week 1, losing 2.8 pounds. Not enough to tell a difference but moving in the right direction:

I apologize for the mirror shot but that's just the way it's going to have to be.

A couple of things I discovered (or rediscovered) this week. The first: steel cut oats! They're delicious! One cup with 1/2 cup fat free milk and splenda= 5 points. Not too shabby! The second: Michael Jackson's The Experience for the Play Station Move. What a fun way to get some exercise! I LOVE MJ and dancing to his music is just plain awesome and what a workout! Don't let anyone tell you otherwise... I was SWEATING and unable to sing most of the time. I'm going to try some different exercises this week but will definitely keep doing that one intermittently!

Summer is over...

2011-09-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

Summer is now officially over and I like and dislike a few things about this... The likes will be first: 1-Cooler weather! I can finally break out the sweaters and stop having to change shirts several times a day because I'm too sweaty! 2- The year is almost over which means I'm getting closer to going to graduate school! 3- We're coming up on a LOT of paid holidays! Dislikes: 1- Getting closer to winter! Unfortunately in Utah, Fall is one of the shorter seasons (along with Spring) and Winter seems to drag on and on and on... 2- Driving in the snow is a concept that keeps me awake at night, literally. People just don't know how to do it. 3- We can't take the kids outside at work. And they get CRAZY if they can't get some of that energy out. 4- Baseball season is almost over. Don't get me wrong, the post season is awesome and probably the best part but it is always too short. (GO YANKEES!!!)

I believe I have settled on a Graduate Program... But I change my mind by the second so who knows? I haven't even started the application process but I will start that ASAP. I also joined Weight Watchers yesterday (well on Saturday). Good thing too since I've officially reached obese status... I officially start the program tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. It's a lot different from before but it seems like it will be a good change.

Bah....

2011-08-28T00:04:00.000-07:00

Well after I made that lovely list on my last post, guess how many of those things I did every day? None... Several of them I did fairly regularly and a few of them I didn't do at all so the rest of this post shouldn't come as a surprise:

I took the GRE on Friday AND... I didn't do very well. I won't receive my official scores until November but they gave me a range based on the old test's scoring system and I will more than likely have to take it again. You can only take the test once every 60 days now so I can't take it until the end of October at the earliest... And scores will still not be available until November. I can take the prep class at the U as much as I want for the next three years and not be recharged. Or I can wait and see what my scores are and if some school out there will take pity on me and let me in. Another option is to find a grad program that does not require the GRE, one of the few I've seen is Social Work. Or find a second bachelor's degree that has better job prospects than the one I have and go for that... Ugh...

I won't lie to you, when the screen showed me my score, I was very disappointed... So much so that I cried the entire drive home. I really did not want to have to take it again. My verbal score will probably be okay but the quantitative was horrible. If I score in the upper part of the range I might be okay, although based off of the average scores from grad schools I'm looking at, my score is still below it.

I blame myself for sure. I definitely did not study as much as I should have and didn't follow the tips I learned from my prep class at the U. BUT many people have to take it more than once so it shouldn't make me look like a total idiot... right???

Motivating???

2011-08-08T01:48:00.000-07:00

So I have still been having a hard time studying for the GRE. I know, shocking right? Thursday I finally made a list of all the things I need to do before I'll be prepared for the test. This has helped a little bit, as now I can see it spelled out and know what to do each night, although wanting to do it still has not happened.
Here it is, as you can see, I have plenty to do in the next 3 weeks (eek!):
1- Watch Algebra iTunes videos (iTunes U has free videos of many different subjects.)
2- Finish Geometry book (I ordered "Geometry: Tutor in a Book" from Amazon.com after I couldn't figure it out. It has helped out quite a bit and was definitely worth the investment!)
3- Read "Vocabulary Builder" (I got this from the GRE prep class I took at the U.)
4- Do more practice problems from the ETS GRE book. (Another book I received in class.)
5- Obtain list of root words and study their meanings. (I plan to look for these online. I also believe there's a list in some of the materials I got from the class.)
6- Read the New York Times every day. (One of the ways to prep for the test is to read lots of new material. I have been trying to read the NY times daily but with our current economic situation, this has become increasingly difficult.
7- Begin making flash cards of the important math formulas. (I will use the ETS GRE book to help determine what those might be. Also, internet searches)
8- 5 paragraph essay (Since the test starts with two writing questions, I will use the High School method of writing papers or the 5 paragraph essay. I mostly remember how to do that but I'll need to look it up just to make sure I have the formatting correct.)

So that's what I'll try to do between now and August 26th. I may ask for the 25th off as well so I can have an extra day to study. I do actually feel better seeing all laid out so I know what needs to be done. I will also be limiting my extracurricular activities as I clearly need to study a LOT...

Also, I have been back in Utah for a full year now. Sometimes it feels like forever, other times it feels like I've been back for a week. Even though I lived in Denver for 15 months, there is plenty of stuff I never did that I may have to go back for.
Here's my list for that:
1- Finish the Celestial Seasonings tour in Boulder. My friend Amanda got really sick right at the beginning.
2- Eat at Snarff's in Boulder. They even put one in Denver and I never ate there! I blame you Chipotle!
3-See Pike's Peak. Apparently you can drive up to the top if you want but there are also other ways to get there however I still never went there. I did see Garden of the Gods (which is basically like hanging out in Southern Utah) so I did spend a little time in Colorado Springs.
4- Go to Red Rock's amphitheater. I seriously can't believe I never did this. When there were no events going on you could go hike, run, walk, etc. They also had cheap movies there in the summer.
5- I wanted to go to Elicht Gardens until I went to Lagoon a couple of weeks ago. I have apparently developed motion sickness because I wanted to die when we got home. Maybe if I can find a decent motion sickness pill I will go to Elicht's...
6- Go to Aspen. Nothing more specific, I would just like to go there.

That's all I can think of for now. If I ever go back there, I'll have to try and cross some of this off my list.

I'm thinking I will also have to make a similar list to my GRE one involving my fitness goals.

I digress

2011-07-25T23:42:00.000-07:00

I really didn't mean to go on and on in that last post about how much I hate United but clearly, I am not a huge fan of the airline and I'm still enraged by the poor way they treated me!

I did also mean to give a few updates. And when I say few, I mean very few since there seems to be nothing going on in my world, at least not that I haven't mentioned. As I've stated before I don't work until 12:00 every day so I had a lot of great plans for that time: working out, applying for other jobs/grad school, study for the GRE, and other great industrious things. Sounds great right? Well most of this time has been spent sleeping in or playing around on Facebook. Not such great use of my time. Don't get me wrong, getting enough sleep is very important but if I would just go to bed at a decent hour I wouldn't need to sleep until 10:30 to receive a healthy amount of sleep.

I take the GRE in exactly one month from today and you think that would be motivating right? Well since I'm blogging instead of studying you can see what my answer is... I took a 6 week prep course and discovered I don't remember math a whole lot beyond basic arithmetic. The GRE also has algebra (I remember a little) and geometry (I remember even less). I ordered a book online from Amazon on Geometry but I have the hardest time studying it! Hmmm.... Hopefully there's a grad school out there that will take me...

One of the other industrious things I was planning to do in my mornings was exercise. I finally got the motivation about two weeks ago and got up and hopped on the treadmill. After about 15 minutes my left knee started to hurt so I jumped off. I was only walking at a fast pace, not even running or jogging yet so I'm not really sure what happened. Maybe I didn't stretch out enough prior to starting? Or maybe I'm too heavy right now and need to lose weight with lower impact exercises first? Maybe I'm just not meant to be a runner and should find a different form of exercise. Not really sure. I may talk to a personal trainer about it and see what I may be doing wrong and see if it makes a difference. The problem with that plan is that my paychecks have been severely lacking since moving to 30 hours a week (not surprisingly). I've thought about getting a second part-time job since I can't find one decent full-time one but I'm having a hard enough time studying for the GRE as it is!

So that's what's currently going on in my world. If anyone has any tips on running or studying for the GRE, PLEASE let me know!

I hated United!!!!

2011-07-17T22:52:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I went to California June 9th. My trip did NOT start out well. My original flight left here at 6:00 AM. Yes, despite my better judgement, I booked this flight. I figured getting up at 4:00 would give me enough time to get ready and go. My family was already in Cali and I didn't want to torture anyone else so I decided to park there in the econo lot. I made it in the doors at 5:20 and waited in line until 5:30 at which point I was told I was unable to catch the flight... Really United Airlines? I caught a Southwest flight back to Denver at Christmas time with only 10 minutes until departure time! Not only that but the counter person was a total biotch and was completely unwilling to help me and actually suggested I try US Air. Thank you bitch, from here on out I will!!! (I apologize for the language but even just thinking about this has made me furious all over again!)

So I came back home and called United customer service. They tell me the next flight into San Luis Obispo is a flight out at 9:00 PM with a connection in LA (there's no direct flight from here to there). So I ask to be put on that flight...until... she tells me the price.... An additional $1,000!!!! I was OUTRAGED!!! I had been pretty nice up to this point but as soon as she said $1,000 I LOST my mind! Things were coming out of my mouth and I wasn't even thinking it through first. I'm not really sure I've ever been this pissed off before. Eventually I got everything out of me that would come and then asked how much a flight out tomorrow would cost. She either anticipated this reaction beforehand or while I was yelling at her looked up my cheapest option because she then offered it to me. I could fly to Denver at 5:00 and then to Santa Barbara for $400 more. I would arrive close to midnight and my brother's house was an hour north of here (hence the reason I wasn't flying in here). So I begrudgingly booked that flight and gave her a pretty nasty customer service survey at the end (where I also yelled at, telling them how much I hate them and will NEVER fly them again!).

I waited for two hours to call my parents (since it was still like 6 AM here, 5 AM in California). My Mom was like well what about flying here or there, etc... Finally I was like Mom, they'll charge me an additional $150 to change my flight again plus I had a hotel booked and since it was less than 24 hours couldn't cancel it so you'll just have to come and get me. Then I took a little nap since I only got about 4 hours of sleep and being that mad is exhausting. After I woke up, I was able to find a friend to take me to the airport at 3. I wanted to make sure to get there with plenty of time and lo and behold I get there and there is no line to either check in or go through security. Whatever... So I sit in the Salt Lake airport for 2 hours, have about an hour flight in the wrong direction to a city I'm not too fond of and then sit in that airport for another 3.5 hours. I would have called a friend there but I was too worried about missing another flight that I ate at McDonald's in the airport (that's actually become a DIA tradition for me), purchased a magazine, and people watched for the 3.5 hours I was there. Every United flight that night had been delayed. One man's first flight was so late he missed his connecting flight and he was berating the gate agent. I had to refrain from joining in... Luckily my flight was on time and we actually ended up getting into Santa Barbara 20 minutes early.

The rest of the trip was pretty good. We didn't do much on Friday but run errands and took the kids to Chucky Cheese. My nephew Logan was a little scared of me... Sad. Saturday we drove down to LA and went to the temple. My sister-in-law went for the first time and they were sealed afterward so it was a long day. We then drove back to where they live and said our goodbyes Saturday night. Sunday night we got up early and drove back to Utah. It's roughly a 12 hour drive and I slept a little over halfway... It was awesome! I figured I'd never get to sleep that night but I had no problems!

Here are some images from the temple:

Downtown LA from the temple steps:

The temple from the back:

My brother and sister-in-law sharing a moment afterward:

In the foreseeable future I will only be going places that I can drive to... And will definitely NEVER FLY UNITED AGAIN! I'm pretty sure Satan himself is running that airline...

Summer!!!

2011-06-05T23:17:00.000-07:00

Despite the fact that I'm already roasting to death, I'm really excited that it's finally summer! Mostly for the fact that I have one upcoming vacation and have just come back from another! We'll start with the vacation I just came back from:

Over Memorial Day weekend, I went up to Seattle to see a friend and see my beloved Yankees take on the Mariners. Getting out of Salt Lake proved to be a slight headache... My flight was delayed by an hour and 40 minutes which meant I would miss my connecting flight in Las Vegas. So I called and got put on the next flight in Vegas, but would still be cutting it close. I had to book it from one end of the airport to the next but they were holding the plane for us and several other people who were delayed so I was able to get on. This was on Friday night.

Saturday morning we drove to Seattle and went to the temple. Next we checked into our hotel and went down to the waterfront area and drove around for quite some time looking for parking (not an easy thing to do). We walked around the waterfront a little, had some seafood, then went to the game. The Yankees lost in the 12th inning... The next day we got up, went to McDonalds, did the Duck tour, then went to the game. The Yankees ended up crushing the Mariners this time, which was sadly not as entertaining. We then headed back to Tacoma (where my friend lives), had some really nice seafood, then went to bed. The next day we went back to Seattle and did the Space Needle and walked around a little bit. We went to the Cheesecake Factory for a rushed lunch so I could get to the airport on time. Well just like the incoming flight, my flight back out was delayed. Luckily it was a direct flight so I didn't have to worry about missing connecting flights. Some pics:

Seattle skyline from the top of the Space Needle

Safeco Field prior to the Saturday evening game

Space Needle (obviously)

Derek Jeter getting ready to bat during the Saturday evening game

Seattle skyline from the Duck tour while we were in the water

This Thursday, I'm headed to California to visit my brother and his family. He and his wife are being sealed in the Los Angeles temple on Saturday and I'm happy I will be able to be there! My parents and little brother are headed out tomorrow morning which means I'll be home alone until I leave early (5 AM) on Thursday. They're driving out and I'll be flying out and driving back with them next Sunday. Should be fun!

The rest of the summer, I won't be going into work until noon. This excites me for a few reasons: I will be able to sleep in a little, I will be able to wake up and work out, and I will be able to search and apply for more jobs. This doesn't make me happy for about one reason: less working=less money.

But mostly, YAY for summer!!!

I'm glad I paid $20,000 for this...

2011-05-16T21:30:00.000-07:00

Today I was spit up on, almost pooped and peed on (luckily my reflexes have gotten to the point where I can divert this), kicked and hit... Driving home tonight I couldn't help but think: "man, I'm glad I paid $20,000 to get a degree to do a job I didn't need a degree for." I came home and was finally able to cry it out when I turned on the news and they had a story of a girl with terminal brain cancer... Great. Can't I just be upset for a little while? I understand things could be much worse for me but I just need a good cry... And rant which is why I'm writing about it. I applied for three jobs today. We'll see how many of them call me back...

One more step in the right direction...

2011-05-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

Not this past week but the week before I was furious with my employers... FURIOUS!!! I was supposed to have been given health insurance in March but since they messed up it hadn't happened yet and it appeared it wouldn't be happening... I was not happy! I had been paying for it since March and they hadn't bothered to say anything until I asked why I hadn't received a card in the mail. If I weren't the responsible person I am (and hadn't spent 6 months last year being unemployed) I would have left at my break and never come back. So I called the insurance company myself and they basically said there was nothing they could do blah blah blah, so the fury continued. I had been looking and looking for other jobs to apply to... Something, anything else! There's nothing but crap out there folks! So I decided this was my sign to go to grad school and enrolled in a GRE prep course at the U. After hearing the GRE is changing, I looked into it and found out that it's half price if you take the revised version in the first two months so I jumped on that. I will be taking the GRE on August 26th and I think I have 4 programs I'll be applying to. I started the first prep class this past Saturday and got about half the score on the practice GRE that I'll need. I have a lot of studying to do!

By the way, they were able to work it out so I do have health insurance and they're going to back date the coverage to the first of March. I should be getting my card sometime this week and then I'll be scheduling an appointment with my Dr ASAP. After two years, I'm sure she's missed me ;)

Finished!

2011-04-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

Unlike the rest of the items on my resolution list for this year, I have accomplished one! I finished reading the entire Harry Potter series before the last movie comes out in July! If you haven't read them and are on the fence about reading them, I HIGHLY recommend it! Okay the first two weren't that great, I struggled through them GREATLY! I was constantly wondering how the series did as well as it did based on those two books. The third was better but I still wasn't in love. The first half of the fourth was about the same but the last half I could not put down! I had to know what happened! The fifth, sixth, and seventh were all the same! I have lost countless hours of sleep reading these books because I simply had to know what was going to happen and couldn't wait until the next evening when I would have the opportunity to read it again! I finished the last book tonight and couldn't stop crying! You really do fall in love with all the characters and feel for them! Even though they're not real! I was actually dreading coming to the end but I'm actually a little relieved. It ended well and I don't have to worry about what will happen to each of them anymore.

The new movie comes out July 15th and I just requested the day off from work so we can go to the midnight showing! I have seen two Harry Potter movies at midnight and after the last one I had decided I would never do it again. But after reading the books, I don't think I can wait. Although just from watching some of the previews I can tell they're going to add stuff that wasn't in the book but I guess it can't be perfect.

JULY 15TH!!!!!

Update on the resloutions

2011-04-03T23:25:00.000-07:00

The what now? I made resolutions this year? Oh yeah... Well that should let you know how they're going or more accurately NOT going... But I thought it would be fun (or more accurately motivational) to revisit what my plans were for the year and how I'm doing on each one:

1- Get into better shape. I would like to be able to finally run that 5K with my brother and I'm determined to make it happen this year! I would also like to be able to go on a bike ride with him and not have to stop every five feet!

I received new running shoes for my birthday and have used them a grand total of once... I am seriously considering hiring a personal trainer for this!

2- Along with getting into shape, I need to lose the extra weight I've put on. I'm officially the heaviest I've ever been and not proud of that fact... My BMI is over 25 now which means I'm considered overweight so don't bother telling me I look fine.

I have barely even thought about this one until more recently. I have been noticing I'm constantly sweating to death and I'm thinking it's my size/caloric intake. I'm going to join Weight Watchers either this week or next!

3- Give up the diet soda! Or at least the vast majority of it! I have pretty much lived off of it for the last 5 years and it's disgusting! I finally figured out a couple of months ago that my favorite (diet Dr Pepper) was causing little sores on the roof of my mouth. They wouldn't happen all the time but probably at least once a month. I switched to Coke Zero and have not had the same problem but I want to get off of all of it!

HAHAHAHA! This is one that I only sort of want to do because I know it's the healthy choice but I absolutely don't want to do it. I don't know what it is, I have some sort of emotional attachment to it or something but deep down, I still want to drink it... All 6 cans a day of it! That's right, 6 cans a day! I'm not proud of it but I do LOVE it!

4- Get out of debt! I've put far too much on my credit card and then paid the minimum due for way too long. It ends now. I'm going to start paying the amount I paid in rent to all of my bills and they should be paid off by the end of the year (hopefully sooner with a good tax return since I didn't work for a lot of the year).

This is one that I've actually made some headway on. I'm about $130 away from paying off one bill leaving me with two bills left. I filed my taxes last week and will be receiving a tax refund which will pay off one other bill and I can then focus on the last remaining bill.

5- Go to grad school! I need to finish my application(s) and I plan to do that this month (January).

I don't even really want to discuss this one... I had decided to study Social Work at USC but it wasn't feeling 100% right so I let the deadline to apply pass by... Which I don't regret that but I regret not taking a GRE prep course last year, taking the GRE test, and applying to grad schools because at this point, it will be for the fall of 2012 that I can apply for anything...

6- Finish the Harry Potter series by the time that last movie comes out (July). I have the first three read and have just started the fourth. They keep getting longer and longer though which is intimidating...

This is the other one that I've actually been doing. I just finished the 5th one today so that leaves me 3 months to read two books. Judging by the fact that the 5th one was the longest (the 6th is about two hundred pages shorter), I think I will achieve this one!

4- Go to bed at a decent hour (at least before midnight). When I didn't have a job I would stay up all night and then sleep through the afternoon and I think my body is still kind of wanting that pattern. I don't even have to be to work until 9:15 and I'm still constantly exhausted! I can't even watch a TV show or movie at night without falling asleep. My goal is to start being ready for bed at 11:00.

Haha, judging by the fact that it is passed midnight and I have to get up and go to work in a few hours we know this one is not going well...

I definitely have a lot of self improvement to work on!

New tips

2011-03-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

After moving back to Utah in July, I decided I would start to prepare to take the GRE (haha). I wanted to take a class since I had tried to study for the test while in Denver and did it for a little while but eventually gave up. I knew the U offered classes and found out that members of the Alumni Association were given a discount. So I signed up but still couldn't afford the class, let alone the test. But then a new incentive was brought to my attention: the Alumni Career Services program. It's a six month program and you're given the opportunity to attend two workshops. I have been trying to attend one for a while but they've been repeatedly canceled. This Monday I was finally able to attend one titled: "Troubleshooting: Why You May Not Be Landing a Job".

A couple of helpful tips for me personally (or what I thought would be helpful, I guess only time will tell if it pays off or not):
-Join LinkedIn. But not just join, have a complete profile, join groups, connect with people you know, etc. I have now joined so if you're on there, look for me!
-Be more aggressive during interviews. Obviously you don't want to be overly aggressive or they will be put off by that but go into an interview like it's a discussion. Not only are they trying to see if you'll be a good fit in their organization, you want to see if they'll be a good fit for you. Don't wait for them to ask every question, follow up their questions with yours, if you have them. And above all, ask for the job! This is one thing I've failed to do, not because I didn't know you were supposed to but because I have not really known how to do it without coming off desperate. I know the person who took my place at the health department was given the job because she said "I really want this job" during her interview. Seems easy enough but I will want to phrase it differently. Once I meet with the counselor for the Alumni, this is something I will be asking her.

Stay tuned! I meet with her next week and post anything that might be useful for others out there.

What's that smell?

2011-02-27T21:20:00.000-08:00

This has been a particularly fun month for me... A couple of weeks ago ALL of our babies at work were sick. Literally ALL of them either were sent home or had just stayed home at least one day, if not the entire week (okay there were one or two out of seven that weren't). One of our babies (well he's actually a toddler) had been out with strep so when my throat started hurting I was a little concerned but when my nose became plugged on Friday and started running on Saturday I figured I had a pretty bad cold. There were a couple of things different about this than a cold though: 1- I had a massive headache and 2- it stunk! So I figured I had a sinus infection and thought I'd wait for a little while to go the Dr since I don't have health insurance yet (I qualify next week) and I didn't think I had it long enough for them to prescribe antibiotics. By that next Wednesday I couldn't take the smell anymore! It stunk! So my boss let me off early one night and I decided I was going to go the Urgent Care by my house, even if I had to embellish how long my symptoms had been going on, I would get some antibiotics! So I went in and they asked if I had been exposed to strep and since I had they tested me for it. I figured I didn't have it but hey I was paying $99, they might as well test me for whatever that will pay for (no matter how unpleasant). The Dr came in and we talked for a while about what was going on and she said something that made it seem like she didn't really want to give me anything but left the room and came back a couple of minutes later. Then she said "so your strep test came back positive"... I was a little in disbelief... I had no symptoms of it other than a sore throat. I mean, my nose was running! If your nose runs, they tell you don't have strep, you have a cold! But she said that strep can do that. So that explains the smell. Instead of me having horrible breath, I had that smell in my nose. Bacteria stinks! Literally! So I got on antibiotics and took the next day off at work despite the fact that I had already exposed everybody there. I am feeling better but not 100% there. The antibiotics have upset my stomach a little bit but that seems to be getting better. The smell has mostly gone away but I can still smell it a little bit... working with children may literally kill me!

Why I Hate Utah

2011-01-28T22:33:00.000-08:00

Okay so there are several things that I really dislike about Utah but this one ranks top 2, if it's not the thing I hate the most: "you are 20__ (insert whatever age beyond 20 that I've made it to so far) you need to get married." WTF? (excuse my internet speak foul language) I'm comfortable with who I am, why does it bother you? I had a 19 year old girl tell me this the other night as I was dropping her off after a church activity... Really 19 year old girl???!!! You're young, dumb, and naive! But it's not limited to just her. I've gotten it from a wide range of people. Seriously, if I never get married and reproduce does that make me less of a person? HELL NO! If I never get married and reproduce and that bothers you does that make you less of a person? HELL YES! The reasons I wanted out of Utah are becoming so clear to me...

Bad Day

2011-01-06T22:43:00.000-08:00

Few days make me miss Colorado anymore but today was one of them! The song "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter came on while I was driving home from work and I couldn't help but feel it was totally appropriate. GRRRR!!! Why can't I find another job? I don't get it! I apply! I interview! No job offers! I understand the economy is still bad but then shouldn't that have made all those people who said I was overqualified think I was appropriately qualified for the current job market?

New Years Resolutions

2010-12-31T00:49:00.000-08:00

Every year I make resolutions and sometimes I keep them but more often than not I don't so to help me stick to it I thought I would put my resolutions on this blog. We'll see how well that works...

I'll start off with the ones that seem to keep making it back onto my list year after year:

1- Get into better shape. I would like to be able to finally run that 5K with my brother and I'm determined to make it happen this year! I would also like to be able to go on a bike ride with him and not have to stop every five feet!

2- Along with getting into shape, I need to lose the extra weight I've put on. I'm officially the heaviest I've ever been and not proud of that fact... My BMI is over 25 now which means I'm considered overweight so don't bother telling me I look fine.

3- Give up the diet soda! Or at least the vast majority of it! I have pretty much lived off of it for the last 5 years and it's disgusting! I finally figured out a couple of months ago that my favorite (diet Dr Pepper) was causing little sores on the roof of my mouth. They wouldn't happen all the time but probably at least once a month. I switched to Coke Zero and have not had the same problem but I want to get off of all of it!

And here are some that are new to the list but maybe should have made it onto previous years:

1- Get out of debt! I've put far too much on my credit card and then paid the minimum due for way too long. It ends now. I'm going to start paying the amount I paid in rent to all of my bills and they should be paid off by the end of the year (hopefully sooner with a good tax return since I didn't work for a lot of the year).

2- Go to grad school! I need to finish my application(s) and I plan to do that this month (January).

3- Finish the Harry Potter series by the time that last movie comes out (July). I have the first three read and have just started the fourth. They keep getting longer and longer though which is intimidating...

4- Go to bed at a decent hour (at least before midnight). When I didn't have a job I would stay up all night and then sleep through the afternoon and I think my body is still kind of wanting that pattern. I don't even have to be to work until 9:15 and I'm still constantly exhausted! I can't even watch a TV show or movie at night without falling asleep. My goal is to start being ready for bed at 11:00.

That's all I can think of for right now. This looks like a pretty good list and hopefully by the end of the year I can say I've finally accomplished everything.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Time for another rant...

2010-12-05T23:13:00.000-08:00

Not too much has changed recently but I did have another interview this last week. It didn't go super well so if they don't hire me I won't be too surprised. I did just get a second job as an on-call health screener doing health assessments which I did for my internship in school so hopefully that will give me a little more experience and help me down the road.

I'm now at a point of trying to determine what to do next. Do I keep applying to job after job and going to interview after interview only to be rejected time and time again? How much rejection can one person handle? Do I go back to school and major in something that I find interesting but maybe doesn't have the best job outlook right now but hope that in two years things will have turned around? Or do I pick a different career field that I might not like as much but you can always get a job in? I'm literally at an impasse here and need to make a decision quick or else it will be made for me and I don't necessarily like that option. I just wish somebody would tell me what to do and make it possible for me to do so at the same time. Being an adult is not all it's cracked up to be!

There's my rant for the job outlook and here's my rant on something else that's bothering me:

What happened to female camaraderie? I was always taught that if your friend is dating someone, then you shouldn't turn around and try to date that same person. I realize there is no rule set in stone on this but I find it shocking (and disgusting!) how some people just disregard the feelings of others.

And the final rant (although it's not totally a rant I guess, just something that is bothering me):

I feel like Denver is haunting me. I know that sounds strange but lately things have been reminding me of Denver. A couple of weeks ago I went with a group of "friends" (okay they are my friends I'm just annoyed with a couple of them, see above paragraph) to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. We decided Trax would be the best way to get to and from downtown (WRONG!) so as we were waiting at the platform on Main Street I looked across the street and saw somebody who was in my ward in Denver. I couldn't speak to him since he was across the street obviously but I think this messed with my head a little since I've had a dream practically every night about moving back to Denver. I look back on my time there fondly now but as I read some of the things I've written while living there or just take the time to really think about it, my time there was not the happiest I've ever been. Time to look forward and not back! And on a side note, I remember why I moved to Denver in the first place: the men! No offense to the men in my current ward, but not one of them can hold a candle to this guy! Oh well, I guess I missed my chance yet again...

I do feel a little better now. Thanks for bearing with me (if anyone actually reads this)!

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

2010-11-03T21:58:00.000-07:00

I have seen this on a couple of other people's blogs and thought I'd give it a try.

The Good

I have finally started to fill out my grad school application. I was planning to only apply to one school (USC) but I may apply to more than one. One problem I'm running into is not having the proper pre-requisites...

The Bad

No new news on the job front. I am having trouble even finding things to apply for.

The Ugly

As I mentioned in my previous post I was having some sort of ailment. I thought I had gotten somewhat better by Saturday, October 23rd. So when my cousin and her family came down from Brigham City, I went with them and my mom to Witches Night Out at Gardner Village. I was fine while we there, although still somewhat nauseous and didn't want to eat a whole lot (I actually asked about soups at dinner and I don't really like soup). We left there at about 11:00 and my mom wanted to go to the store. As soon as we get to the store, my ear started to hurt. It wasn't too bad at this point but enough to be annoying. About an hour and a half after this, it starts to get really painful. I couldn't believe how much it hurt! I was actually smacking my head to see if I could get some of the fluid out to relieve the pressure. Well about two hours after it started hurting, I heard a popping noise and fluid suddenly was fizzing out of my ear. I then threw up again and my ear started ringing. It was about 2 in the morning at this point and I wasn't totally sure what had happened or what to do about it so I went to bed (I was also somewhat drugged at this point since I had taken NyQuil earlier to knock myself out so I wouldn't be in pain anymore). I had dropped my phone somewhere the night before and couldn't find it (I couldn't bare to bend over since I was still in a lot of pain) so I didn't set my alarm to wake up for regional conference. My alarm went off at my Saturday wake up time (10 or 11) and I got up and couldn't hear out of my left ear at all. I decided to look up ruptured ear drum on the internet and had all the symptoms of it. I waited for my parents to come home and told them about what had happened and they both said my ear drum had ruptured. So off to the urgent care I went which I had avoided all that week since I don't have any health insurance. This urgent care has a deal where if you're uninsured they will charge you a flat fee of $99 so it was probably better than going to a Dr's office and definitely better than going to the ER. So I go in and tell her what's been going on all week and she gives me a look like I should have gone in earlier (sore throat for a week and vomiting without cold symptoms). I asked her if I should have gone in and she was kind of wishy washy but offered to test me for strep but as I was getting an oral antibiotic (as well as an ear drop) I didn't feel it was necessary. My soar throat went away a day or two after taking the anti-biotic so I'm pretty sure I had strep. You've got to love working with little kids! So this whole adventure cost me $170 for the urgent care and two prescriptions.

Today was my first antibiotic free day and my ear still feels weird but I think I'm definitely on the upswing of it.

On a side note, I was Snow White for Halloween and dyed my hair black temporarily. It's washed out into a dark brown which I'm kind of enjoying so I may dye it this color permanently (dark brown). Here is a pic of my MJ from Thriller pumpkin (this will definitely become a tradition of mine), my whole costume, and then a closer one of my face:

Little different

2010-10-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

After my last blog post, I had decided to start trying to post something once a week. Haha, see how well that one worked out... I don't have anything super exciting to post on the job front. I did have another interview last week and apparently it didn't go very well either since I haven't heard back. This was a job I never actually applied for but another opening from my last interview became available and they called and asked me to come back in. I haven't been as good about applying for things lately but I did just enroll in the University of Utah's career services so hopefully that will help me. I do enjoy some of the children I work with but about a week after starting to work there, I picked up a cold and currently I have some other illness (sore throat, vomiting, some body aches, and a little congestion). I really hate being sick and I don't know that I can handle having some sort of ailment every other day.

Now for the different part. I have seen a couple of posts on other people's blogs about their top ten favorite things that aren't people. I thought I would give this a try for something different and to fill a blog ;) These are in no particular order:

1: My lap top. I don't know what I would have done in Denver without it. First while living with the crazy lady, it helped me keep my sanity sometimes. Then while living in my apartment and not picking up ABC or NBC so that I could still watch LOST, Chuck, The Office, and 30 Rock. Being able to use Google Maps/Mapquest to navigate my way through Denver. And finally while not having a job for about 6 months I was able to look for a new one and keep myself entertained.

2: My car. Despite the fact that it is now 12 years old, it's still in pretty good condition. While driving back and forth between here and Denver, I was never worried that my car would break down... And it never did.

3: The Hunger Games Series. I know, it's the big trend right now but I LOVED it! My mom talked me into reading them after a quick trip home over Memorial Day and I read the first two within about a week. When the 3rd book came out I finished it in two days. LOVED LOVED LOVED it! I have been reading a lot while not having a job and even though there were several other books I have quite enjoyed, none as much as the Hunger Games. (I'm currently on the 2nd Harry Potter and thought I would read all of them but I don't know that I'll make it. I'm having a hard time reading a book that I already know what happens...)

4: Diet Dr Pepper. This is a love/hate relationship for sure. I definitely hate to love it!

5: My collection of the Simpson's on DVD. I own all the seasons up through 12 and hope to own 13 soon since it's now been released and has my all time favorite episode! It just seems like a frivolous purchase to me right now.

6: My iPod. Even though I have a first generation Nano and it's almost full, I love being able to only purchase and listen to what I want instead of dealing with buying a CD for only one song.

7: The New York Yankees. I realize this might be breaking the rules a little bit since it consists of people but I do love them.

8: My camera. I love to take pictures. I have kind of stopped doing it since I lost my old camera last year and have been too paranoid about losing my current camera. But I still enjoy it!

9: Knitting. I hope to get better and branch out in my projects since all I've done is baby blankets, and two of the same kind at that. I might try to make myself a sweater but we'll see how that goes.

10: Nyquil. This may seem like a weird thing but as I mentioned earlier I am currently sick and Nyquil has been the only way I've been able to sleep at night. I make sure I always have it on hand now since I got colds a lot in Denver and it appears as that will be the trend this year...

Okay so my list is not as thought-filled as the others I read but this is harder than it seems!

Here is a pic I took at the gates of Neverland Ranch since I listed my camera as one of my favorite things:

Full Circle

2010-09-26T23:09:00.000-07:00

So to start this post off, I think I need to do a little explaining. When I was two years old, my mom started working for a daycare as their cook. She eventually worked her way up to being a teacher and finally a director. I went with her every day through kindergarten and then went for a few summers after that when I decided I didn't want to do it anymore. Eventually when my mom had my little brother, they needed someone to stay with him after the babyroom closed since she had to stay for an hour after that. So they paid me $2.00 an hour to sit with him until it was time to leave. After he turned two, I would go out and clean after school. I did this off and on until I was 16 when my Mom left. She was gone for about 5 years working elsewhere and when she lost her job, they asked her to come back to the daycare (now under new ownership).

Almost a month to the day after moving back, one of the centers needed somebody so she called and asked me if I wanted to do it. Since my parents had paid my most of my bills that month, I felt I couldn't say no, even though it's not my dream job. So I have been working mostly part time at the daycare. It hasn't been too bad since I'm mostly in with the babies, although when all of them start crying at the same time, it can be stressful! It doesn't pay well though so I am still looking for another job.

I've had two interviews since being back and the first one went well but they didn't hire me and I haven't heard back from the second one yet. I've decided to start working on my grad school applications in the mean time. And also to work out again. After I started experiencing knee pain I stopped working out all together but would like to start again and maybe run a 5k on Thanksgiving. That's me for now!

Back in the saddle again!

2010-08-22T00:34:00.000-07:00

Quite a bit has happened since I last posted... I made it back to Salt Lake on July 29th which was kind of sketchy but I made it safe and sound, along with most of my stuff, though I must admit some did have to be thrown away since it just wouldn't fit in my little car. Although after arriving and finding some of the stuff that made it on my "keep list", I can't believe some of my decisions! (seriously, does one person need three boxes of towels? The answer is NO! Meanwhile I threw away one of my favorite bowls and two of my water bottles which would have taken up less space than all of these towels!!!)

The next day, we went up to Idaho where my brother was competing in the Spudman Triathlon. I couldn't believe people would voluntarily put themselves through that but I guess it would be nice to be in that kind of shape. It did inspire me to start working out and hopefully will be able to run a 5K either at the end of September or beginning of October.

Since all of my stuff couldn't fit into my room anymore, the dejunking began... HOLY COW! I can't believe the stuff I've held onto all of these years! Moving so many times has given me a new perspective on keeping junk... If you aren't using it, then it gets thrown away. I have even taken over some of the bedroom next door which was my little brother's old room, but now just houses his (and more recently my) stuff. Here are a couple of pics of my room and one of the room next door: It's gotten better since these were taken but still not quite there yet... Hopefully I can get to the point where I don't have clutter all over. I may just start throwing everything away!

I went to dinner with some friends from elementary school two weeks after I got back. It was fun to see everyone again and hear what they're up to. Everyone looks exactly the same (a little older though of course).

Last week I went with my parents and little brother to California to see my brother and his family. We stayed for almost a week and had a great time! Some of the highlights were going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, visiting Solvang which is the Danish capital of America (our ancestry on my paternal Grandfather's side is from Denmark, hence my last name), finding Neverland Ranch, former home of Michael Jackson (you can't yet go inside so we just found the gates. Hopefully soon they will turn it into a museum or something), and playing on the beach. Of course we enjoyed their company as well. Here are a couple of pics of the trip:

Still no job but have heard of a couple of possibilities. Hopefully something will work out soon! I'm going to try and start studying for the GRE again and apply for grad schools for next fall. I didn't realize getting into grad school was such a process but I guess they want you to take it seriously!

As a side note, I actually miss Denver a little and will especially miss the Broncos! I went to two of their games last year and they're so much fun (albeit, expensive and one time really cold)! So since I needed a new background and couldn't find another one that I really liked, I chose this one. Go Broncos!

Foiled again!

2010-07-23T03:52:00.000-07:00

Well once again my next great idea has been foiled! I seriously wish I never would have seen a gynecologist! Endometriosis shouldn't exclude me from so many things! I understand for some women it's excruciating but it isn't for me! When my Dr first told me she thought I had it, I had to refrain from laughing because I am never in that much pain. Unfortunately she was right... It's not just the endometriosis though, the ovarian cyst is also a deal breaker (which I feel is caused by the endometriosis, though my Dr felt differently). I hate being a woman sometimes...

The Decision

2010-07-21T02:07:00.000-07:00

Well I guess it's not really a decision more of the only thing I can do... Since I know there are several of you out there losing sleep at night wondering what I am going to be doing... I am moving back home with my parents. Not something I really want to do but that's really the only option at this point since I'm completely out of money. Meanwhile the "economic recovery" seems to be slowing... Life just gets better and better doesn't it?

July= Do or Die

2010-07-03T00:11:00.000-07:00

So begins July, which I am calling my do or die month. July 31st is when our lease is up so I have until then to either find a job or move back home... It's everyone's dream to move back in with their parents when they're 26 right? Remember when having a bachelor's degree was an accomplishment and meant you could find a job that didn't pay minimum wage? Well I don't quite remember that but I'm told it was once the case.

The newest job report published by the government is not making things look any better. Here is a summary by the AP: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gNiyJ905Ho0Ur96V2TQhsBX19lGwD9GN34I80

Some points from the article to consider:

-Employers cut 125,000 jobs last month, the most since October

-Unemployment dropped to 9.5 percent — the lowest level since July 2009 — from 9.7 percent. But the reason for the decline was more than 650,000 people gave up on their job searches and left the labor force.

-The nation still has 7.9 million fewer private payroll jobs than it did when the recession began. The private sector has added an average of 98,000 jobs per month since the beginning of the year. At that rate, it would take nearly seven years to regain the jobs lost during the recession.

So, any eligible men with good jobs out there that want to get married?

And this has nothing to do with the job stuff but I thought I'd wish my mom a happy birthday today! Here is a picture of us when I went home last July for the family reunion.

Tip of the day take 2

2010-06-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

So my last tip of the day was about skipping job fairs at universities... Well I'm beginning to think it might be better to skip them all together. I went to two this week and all I have to show for it is soar feet! Maybe something will happen, who knows but I can't believe the number of people at each one which makes my odds of standing out decrease significantly. Starting to look again at more temp work...

June update

2010-06-08T03:00:00.000-07:00

The temp job is over now, well at least the regularity of it. The grave yard shift was starting to kill me although I'm still sleeping during the day and awake all night. They have told me they may call me when there are things to do but we shall see. If nothing else, I have enough money to pay for rent this month and next, which is when my lease is up.

Job market figures seem to be looking up, although the unemployment rate is not getting any better. I'm beginning to think that getting married would be easier than finding a job at this point...

Update

2010-05-19T11:33:00.000-07:00

Well I don't have fantastic news but I have good news. I have been working temporarily for the last month. The hours are crazy: midnight to 8:30ish AM. But they're paying me pretty well and I get close to 40 hours every week so I can continue to pay my bills for another month or so. I'm not really sure how long it will go on but as long as they allow me to, I will continue to show up.

It's hard to sleep during the day when it's bright outside so I always hope for rain and the weather has been somewhat decent in cooperating with that. I had the day off today so I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond and bought an eye mask so hopefully that helps. My days off really mess me up as well which is why it's almost 1:00 in the afternoon and I'm still awake. It's starting to get dark outside again so maybe I'll be able to fall asleep soon.

As I was driving around today, it was quite warm outside and it made me think of home. Not really sure why, but it did. I haven't been home since March and I'm averaging a trip home every other month so it's probably time for another one. My job may or may not end in the next week or two and if it does then I'll probably take a road trip home. But well rested this time since the last time I drove home alone I fell asleep in Wyoming... Thank goodness for the little bumps (that's the technical term) on the side of the road to let you know when you've gone out of the lane! Who knows what would have happened without them! Another fine Public Health intervention!

Tip of the Day!

2010-04-22T03:36:00.000-07:00

So today (I guess since it's 4:30 in the morning that would be yesterday but since I haven't been to bed yet I consider it all the same day) I went to a job fair at one of the schools here in Denver. As I had never been to a job fair at a school I wasn't sure what to expect but now I know. The vast majority of the businesses that are there are looking for interns (aka free labor as shown in the pic I included for this post). So if you have already graduated and are not looking to work for free, the job fairs held on college campuses are probably not extremely helpful.

There were a few that were looking for employees but most were not. One positive that came from it was stopping by a government organization one of my friends works for here and they all knew who she was and seemed to really like her. They told me they would be hiring in the next three months and would more than likely be giving me a call. The down side of this is that I need a job and I need one SOON! I applied with the Census a few weeks ago and haven't heard back. My roommate told me they took about three weeks to call her as well so maybe soon...

Hang in there everyone!

Good news?

2010-04-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

Well I don't have a job yet but this headline was somewhat encouraging:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011511442_jobs03.html

"Despite strong jobs growth, unemployment rate stays the same"

The good news is that job growth is back up, but the bad news is that more people are still out of work than the number of jobs out there.

Hang in there everybody!

Interview #5

2010-03-26T21:12:00.000-07:00

So I had my fifth interview yesterday here in Denver. I felt like I did better in this interview but in a way they also told me I was overqualified. I either read the job description wrong or they changed it because I don't remember it being an administrative job. Oh well, it's all practice I guess.

So not quite sure what I want to do with my life still but I have started studying for the GRE. Which makes me realize how pathetic my own vocabulary is. I still find it slightly ridiculous this test is required for most graduate programs but I guess it shows you're serious about it. And it's a way to squeeze more money out of people.

On another side note, I'm not a huge fan of this background but I couldn't find one that worked that I liked better for Easter. Happy Easter anyway everyone!

Interview #4

2010-03-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

So I had my fourth interview today since January and they basically told me I was overqualified for the job. The interview was at my old stomping ground, The Utah Department of Health. The day didn't start off well, as I woke up sick which I chocked up to being traumatized. I worked there for a while and had many great experiences there but also many bad memories. I was still sick after going home though so I don't think it was the place but who knows?

Each interview is a learning experience so this was not a total waste. I keep hoping that I will be getting better at interviewing with each one but the second interview I had (the first one in Utah) I still feel like was my best. Oh well. I have been given a couple of job leads so that's promising! Knowing people definitely helps! They say to always network and I think it's probably how a lot of people currently have jobs. Keep your fingers crossed for me everyone who is still reading this!

I did get to catch up with most of my former coworkers which was nice. People kept telling me how good I look so that makes me wonder what I used to look like... I thought I looked rather pale today (even for me) so who knows?

Slight change

2010-03-09T21:44:00.000-08:00

So I've decided to change my blog up a little. I'm still in poverty from not having a job but it's no longer self-imposed. So I am going to start writing about the "adventures" I'm having in finding gainful employment. I will also share helpful hints, if I hear any.

Since becoming unemployed, I have been told by MANY people that "everything happens for a reason, blah blah blah". I'm not sure if I believe that or not but if it is true, I don't see the point in this. I have looked at all angles and the only thing I can conjure up is that up to this point, I've made the wrong decisions. Wrong major, wrong career path, wrong state to live in... All just wrong!

Okay so what is right then? I found an interesting article online in which the author states that if you find yourself in the same situation as I am and confused as to where to go, don't ask yourself what you want to do with the rest of your life, but who do you want to become.

I have always been someone where I have wanted to help people improve their lives, which is why I went into health education. Working at the health department for so many years, I gained a passion for women's health but mostly in the line of reproductive health. So I have thought about becoming a certified nurse midwife. However, I would need to take several science classes prior to applying. In the meantime, I still have bills to pay and need an income.

Rant

2010-03-07T20:42:00.000-08:00

Okay so as I've mentioned previously I am currently looking for a job... And as this post title suggests, I am incredibly frustrated right now! And I know I'm not alone, this is the worst recession we've had since probably the depression and who knows when or if it will get any better. Things could always be worse, I don't have children or a husband, I was able to withdraw my 401K to live on (I will regret this next year when I have to pay taxes on it), my parents will allow me to move back in with them, and my landlord has been fairly nice (although let's face it, he still wants to be paid so he's not that nice!). BUT that money will eventually run out and I would rather not get to the point where it is all gone. Let's review how I got here shall we?

I graduated in the Summer of 2008 with a Bachelor's degree in Health Promotion and Education from the University of Utah . Prior to this happening, the economy took a serious dive. Just like when I graduated from high school in 2002. Hmm... I'm seeing a pattern. Maybe I should just enroll in school and stay there to prevent the economy from collapsing.

After fruitless efforts of trying to get another job, I heard of AmeriCorps, a program of the Corporation for National and Community Service. People were telling me what a good resume builder it would be and the best part of all was that I could move out of Utah. I had dreamed of moving out of Utah for a while and this seemed to be the only way to do it at the time. So I applied for several different AmeriCorps positions in different parts of the country and finally was assigned in February and started in April.

Again why I thought this was a good idea, I have no idea. I had a fairly stable job with the government and had put in 5 years. I could have retired early! Sure the pay wasn't great but I had excellent benefits and didn't have to tolerate outright abuse! I know, hindsight is 20/20 but had I stuck it out, a better job within the department might have opened up and I could have moved on and done something closely related to what I went to school for.

I have enjoyed all the friendships I've made in Colorado but there's not a day that goes by that I don't regret coming here! I would have gone back to Utah but I have a lease through July which unless I get a job here, I won't be able to finish it out.

I have had 3 interviews since January (well all in January) and two were in Utah. My little brother today asked me if I had been applying for jobs lately... I laughed and told him I apply for jobs every day! At some point, something has got to work out for me, right?

The US unemployment rate for February 2010 was 9.7%. Colorado's in December 2009 was 7.3% and Utah's for the same month was 6.6%. This does not show the entire picture as many people are unemployed who are not eligible for unemployment benefits (me being one of them).

It's estimated that 27.4% of the US population 25 and older had a bachelor's degree or higher from 2006-2008. In Salt Lake it was estimated that 21.8% had a bachelor's degree and in Denver 22.4% (same years and ages). (These figures came from either the US Census Bureau information or the US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

With such a minor percentage of the population having one, why is it so hard to find a job for me since I have one? I realize my major was more obscure but not completely ridiculous like Communications or Art History. (No offense to people with those degrees but really, what do you plan to do with them?)

What I've been up to

2010-02-08T22:22:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a while since I've posted anything and I doubt anyone will be reading this but I thought I'd post something anyway. As I mentioned in my last post, I am no longer working and have been torn as to what my next steps in life will be. I have been thinking about going back to school to become a Certified Nurse Midwife but I will need to take several science classes before I can apply. In the meantime, I still have bills to pay and a lease through July. Something told me to not sign a lease that long, but I went against my better judgment and did it anyway. I talked to my landlord and let him know my situation and he is willing to let me stay an additional month (march) for less money while I try to get a job here. I'm not really sure how I feel about that... Before going home for Christmas, I wanted to stay here, since coming back I can't decide. I actually went back to Utah last week for two job interviews... but no job offers. So I'm still in Denver for a little while.

Cross your fingers that I get this figured out soon... I don't want to be 26 and aimless!

My favorite holiday is coming up, Valentine's Day, so I'm going to use that as my image for the post. I still can't figure out why I like it so much... I just do.

Tonight we're gonna party like it's 1999!

2009-12-30T12:22:00.001-08:00

Well I guess it's time for my once a month blog and I guess the end of the year blog... What a year this has been! It's been full of highs and lows. And for as high as the highs were, the lows were just as low (if that makes sense).

The year started with me still looking for a job after graduating with a bachelor's degree in July of 2008. Shortly into the year, tragedy struck... My cousin took his own life on January 18th. Though we weren't close, it stung. A death by suicide is like no other death you will ever experience. People say incredibly insensitive things: "it's the easy way out", "it's very selfish", etc. If you feel this way, you should actually speak to people who have attempted. Those who have survived their suicide attempts will tell you it took an incredible amount of courage to not only decide to end their lives but to actually carry it out. It's very far from easy nor is it selfish. If you would look someone in the face who is in so much pain that they can't stand to take another breath and tell them they need to live because of you, then you are selfish, not them.

February was the same old, same old until close to the end when I was offered a position as an Americorps VISTA in Denver, Colorado. I had the option of waiting until after PSO to move there or I could have left earlier. I chose to wait until after PSO.

Pre-service Orientation (PSO) took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico in mid April. We stayed in a Hilton down there and met lots of new and interesting people. There were quite a few of us who would be serving in Denver so it was nice to meet people prior to moving there. I moved to Denver on April 25th and made the mistake of finding someplace on Craigslist and moving there before having seen it. I will never do that again! My land lady was NUTS!

I got to the breaking point in early July when I moved in with some friends who live in Highland's Ranch Colorado. (It's a suburb in the southern end of Denver Metro) They let me stay with them for two months and then I found a roommate in Eastern Denver which was much closer to work. She is a personal trainer from Tremonton, Utah.

I have been enjoying Denver a lot more now and hope to be able to stay there. Although, I am no longer working... It's a long story and I won't go too much into it now as there is a potential lawsuit looming... But I will say this, I do NOT tolerate abuse! And what goes around comes around, karma is a bitch, whatsoever ye sew, that shall ye also reap, etc. I am so tired of all the social injustice out there and people being made to think they have no power, I'm currently contemplating going to law school. I've heard that if you can't decide what you want to do, that you should go back to what you wanted to do as a child, and I actually wanted to be an attorney when I was younger.

Anyway, here are some of the major lessons I've learned this year:

1-Don't move into a place before seeing it and meeting anyone else who might also live there
2-If you want to do a term of service in Americorps, VISTA is the worst choice! Do a state or national term or if you want to dig ditches, paint houses, etc do NCCC.
3-October is still potentially really cold in Colorado. If you can't feel anything, maybe you should leave your camera at home...
4-Listen to your instincts more. If you feel uneasy about anything even at all, there is a reason.
5-I can survive on my own
6-Pay attention to the air level in your tires. If they're going flat, you may potentially need new tires or have a nail in one.

Well that is enough rambling for one posting. I hope everyone has a fantastic New Year and that 2010 will be better than 2009!

November post

2009-11-29T16:30:00.000-08:00

Well time has sure flown right by! I can't believe it's been almost two months since my last post! I'm not sure if anyone is actually reading this anymore which I don't blame anyone for giving up on me due to my lack of posts...

Anyway, as I mentioned in my last post, we went to California at the end of last month for my nephew's baby blessing and we had a great time! It was really warm the entire time we were there and we even took a trip to the beach. My nephew seems to be doing well but doesn't use the left side of his body much (he had a stroke on the right side of his brain sometime before he was born). They think maybe some physical therapy can correct that. I think there still might be some time for other effects of the stroke so show up, but so far he is doing great and there didn't seem to be too much damage. He is also incredibly happy and friendly! Luckily for them since Christian (the 2 year old) was NOT! Christian has developed that way though... I was actually quite shocked at how much he liked to talk to everyone but I guess personalities change rapidly.

I have been home more this month than I was last month, but did house-sit a little at the beginning of the month and just got back from Utah for a brief Thanksgiving trip. I wasn't planning to go home, but my parents bought me a plane ticket home since they knew I couldn't afford it. It was nice to be able to spend Thanksgiving with them and I will be back in a few weeks for Christmas.

I have also started to look/apply for new jobs. I've been told it takes 6 months to find a job so hopefully this means I'll have something waiting for me when I'm done... I've also been mulling over going to nursing school. There are a few schools in the country you can apply to grad school for nursing even if you aren't currently a nurse. I have been considering becoming a CNM (certified nurse midwife) but I need to take several science classes prior to applying. I still have 5 months left so I don't need to decide right now...

Logan at 5 months

Christian at 2 years

October!

2009-10-13T21:15:00.000-07:00

This has been a busy month for me and I don't think it will slow down either... Which I guess I can't complain about. Last Monday I had finally had enough with my ingrown toenail and went in to have it fixed. It was incredibly infected and painful so my health coverage should pay for it... Stay tuned! Then the very next day I went down to southern Colorado to conduct some networking meetings for work. Probably not the smartest thing since I was in a lot of pain and on pain medication but oh well. We first went to Alamosa which is a 4 hour drive from Denver and then drove back up to Pueblo which is about 2 hours south of Denver. We stayed overnight in world class accommodations... A Motel 6. I have stayed in worse but I've definitely stayed in better! The next day we also went to Canon City which was about an hour west of Pueblo. Southern Utah is much prettier than Southern Colorado and although I have been accused of being biased in this area, it's not an opinion, it's a fact!
Then this weekend my brothers, Jeremy and Ryan- the two oldest, flew in to watch the U take on Colorado State. I have never been so cold in all my life! When we got there, it was 26 degrees and that was at 4 o'clock and the sun was somewhat out. By the end of the night, I couldn't feel anything! Which is probably why I lost my camera... which I'm super bummed about. I need a new camera anyway, but being an Americorps VISTA isn't exactly lucrative! Plus I had a lot of good memories that that camera captured: my first Yankees game, my first trip to Denver where I was mere feet away from one of the most beautiful men on the planet: Ace Young, the first time I met my oldest biological nephew, and of course the adventures I've had since moving to Colorado. Hopefully some good samaritan picked it up and turned it into lost and found.
The next day we went to the Broncos vs Patriots game. It was still really cold but not nearly as cold as the day before! Much to my surprise (and I think everyone else's), the Brocnos were able to pull out a win. I have a few pictures that my brother took on Sunday but all of the ones I took at the U game are obviously gone...
Then today and yesterday we were at an Americorps conference in Estes Park, CO. It was nice and luckily got warmer since it was actually in the mountains (as opposed to Denver which is NOT in the mountains, don't let anyone tell you that it is either, because they will try!). The next week shouldn't be too busy but then on the 24th I am flying to California for Logan's baby blessing. I'm excited to be somewhere warm but I'm really excited to get to meet my newest nephew and see the older nephews and niece. Hopefully I will have a camera at that point but if I don't, I'm sure my mom will have hers.

The Utes after their victory on Saturday

My brothers trying to warm up at dinner after the Broncos game on Sunday

My oldest brother Jeremy and I at the game... as you can see, we are cold!

Good to be a Yankees fan!

2009-09-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

Congrats to the 2009 Yankees who have clinched the AL East division title! Their first in two years, which may not seem like a long time, but they consistently won it for at least 12 years in a year. Good job guys! This year started off rough for them... Their "star" player had hip surgery here in Colorado just to go to Spring Training immediately after and admit to using steroids in the past... But they not only just won the AL East, they have now won 100 games this season so it just goes to show, perseverance goes a long way!
As my last post indicated, I have now moved into my new place. It's nice to see some of my stuff again, although some of it I can't figure out why I brought it to Colorado with me... Oh well, there are clothing donation drop offs on every corner here so I will just have to dump some of it... One thing I didn't bring was any sweaters! Okay I did bring some, but only one long sleeved sweater and it was extremely cold this week and I could have used more. I actually had free tickets to the Rockies on Tuesday but didn't go because it was raining and 40ish degrees... Luckily my brothers are coming to pay a visit in a couple of weeks and I am hoping they will be nice and bring me a sweater or two... If not, my Mom may have to ship some to me. I will now post some pics of my new place... I just barely bought the two drawers and book shelf and the desk was left here by my roommates prior roommate. I am also using her old mattress which is just a twin mattress on the floor... Hopefully that will change but I have things about using used mattresses from sketchy places and since I can't afford a nice new mattress and bed, this will have to do... I'm posting a couple of pics of my room (yes I am currently watching the Daily Show), and then three of the Yankees today... haha, all of them contain Derek Jeter! But they were the best pictures I've seen so far, I swear!

Moving day!

2009-09-11T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well the day has come... again! I have finally found a new roommate in Denver. I have been staying with my friends for the last two months since I up and left the first place I moved into, which is longer than I had hoped. They have been nice and welcomed me with open arms, but I don't want to be one of those unwelcome guests. So my plan was to email every single's ward bishop in the Metro Denver area and see if there was anyone who was looking for a roommate. The second bishop I emailed put me in touch with the ward housing coordinator who told me there were several people in the ward looking for roommates and put me into contact with one of them. She lives pretty close to where I work, which is nice, the first place I lived was always a 30-40 min drive (sometimes an hour) and my friends live about 15 miles away which depending upon the freeway flow, can take 20 min up to who knows how long! Anyway, last week I signed the lease and paid the rent and moved in most of my stuff... We went camping at the Sand Dunes National Park in Southern Colorado from Saturday through Monday and I wanted to make sure the space I've been using is spotless when I leave so I've been sleeping at my friends house still while I clean and pack the rest of my stuff up... Tomorrow is the big day! I'm moving into a 4 plex, and it's a two bedroom, one bathroom with washer and dryer inside the apartment. Rent is $425 a month which includes everything but electricity. We won't have internet either so I'll have to have that set up and then I'll be responsible for that on my own.
Camping was fun, except I've had a cold and my nose won't stop running. This has been going on for almost two weeks now and all of my coworkers keep telling me that I have allergies... we'll see about that...
Since my last post about "the incident" my back and neck had been hurting more so I have started seeing a physical therapist/chiropractor. I really wanted to see a chiropractor and my health coverage (it is NOT health insurance as I have been repeatedly told) will only cover physical therapy so my physical therapist also being a chiropractor makes me incredibly happy!
Work continues to go on... It gets rather frustrating at times but I'm also starting to see where I might be able to leave my mark. I've been here for almost 5 months now so I better get on it!
Something has been hanging heavy on my mind lately and today being September 11th gives me the perfect platform... Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Mental Health has come a long way in this country, but still not far enough. Being involved in two wars means we will have more and more members of the military coming home who may have PTSD. 10 Soldiers here in Colorado Springs have recently been linked to murders or attempted murders and others in the same unit have committed or attempted suicide. This is a real problem that needs to be addressed better. These are the men and women who are willing to give their lives for our freedom and they deserve better treatment. For more information, check out Mental Health America's website: http://www.nmha.org/index.cfm?objectid=C7DF91D3-1372-4D20-C8E6CFE1B56A38AB

The "Incident"

2009-08-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

So my last few post titles have been lyrics from songs but I had a little mishap on Friday night that I have been referring to as the "incident"... I want to keep my new theme for songs so I just looked it up and there's a band called Porcupine Tree who is releasing an album entitled "The Incident"next month...

Anyway, Friday night was the annual barbecue at my boss' house in Evergreen, Colorado. We closed the office down at about 3:00 and drove up since it's close to an hour drive there. (Evergreen is actually in the mountains, which, as I have mentioned before, Denver is NOT.) So anyway, we get there and eat a few of the appetizers and my fellow VISTA decides it's time for the zip line. I agreed to go on it but I wanted to eat first (I lost out on that one). So three or four people go on it, no problems... Then it's my turn... I get up the ladder and somewhat don't feel like I have a good grip on the handle but I figure it's fine and push off... Well then my hands slipped off and down I came from about 10 feet... Right on my back! I got the wind knocked right out of me and wondered if I would breathe again. Eventually I was able to and respond to the frantic coworkers who are now scrambling to make sure I'm alive. The only thing that hurt at that point was my lungs but they were all extremely concerned so they told me not to move and called 911. When the paramedics arrived, my first aid class came back to me. I knew what they were checking for when they were pressing on me and asking if it hurt (although they didn't have me squeeze their fingers...), which at that point my head hurt a little (obviously since I hit on my back my head smacked the ground pretty hard) and part of my back hurt but other than that I felt okay. So he asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital for x-rays and I told him no that I thought I was fine. Then he asked if I wanted to sit up and I said yes so he let me sit up. Next he asked if I wanted to stand up and at that point I realized I was shaking so I took a moment and then stood up and walked with him to the ambulance (my coworkers were at this point clapping, that wasn't embarrassing at all...). He checked my vitals and said I was fine so I signed the release form and they left. While in the ambulance I did notice seeing "stars" so I probably did have a concussion. This lasted for maybe like an hour and then my vision evened out. And of course by this time, I'm starting to feel it. So I had an ice pack and some Ibuprofen and stuck it out. I didn't sleep well that night as I was in a lot of pain (even though I had taken Advil PM) and had a massive headache on Saturday. Sunday my headache came and went but I was still extremely soar! This morning I woke up and could move my neck without as much pain so today was promising and I'm hoping each day will get like that until I'm pain free! I am incredibly grateful that it didn't result in something worse though... The paramedic told me people often die from a fall that distance and as I was rolling around on the ground trying to breathe I did wonder if I had seriously injured myself... Here's a picture of a similar zip line:

I am still staying with my friend who has said I could stay with them for another couple of months but I am keeping my eye out. I am in contact with a girl living in Provo currently (yes she's a recent BYU grad so I'll have to let that go... If I can...) who wants to move out here. The only problem is she doesn't have a job so I'm a little hesitant about signing a lease with her but she speaks Spanish and doesn't seem to be too picky about finding a job and if you can speak Spanish, then you shouldn't be without a job for long... You may not like the job you end up with, but hey a lot of people out there would settle for anything. I will try to get better at posting but lately I haven't felt like there was much to post about... Until the "incident" of course!

There's a time when you're right and you know you must fight...

2009-07-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

I had set a goal to post a new update every week but as you can tell that fell by the wayside... A lot has happened so I will fill everyone in here:

Two days after my last post (July 8th), I headed back to the place I was living after work and really had the feeling that I didn't want to go there... I always feel that way but it was really strong that day. I should have trusted that instinct because I go in and the psycho woman I was living with was waiting and says "I need to show you something" so I followed her down to the bathroom where I was showering and she says "you haven't been closing the shower door so it's been leaking out and now I'm going to need a new floor, blah blah blah" so I said "no I close it, the door doesn't fit all the way into the frame" and I stuck my fingers in there so she could see... "oh well, we haven't had this problem before blah blah blah and you're going to have to take a bath from now on, blah blah blah"... So I had decided that I had had enough and called a friend who has graciously allowed me to stay with her and her husband while I look for another place. I told them I'd be out at the beginning of August but I haven't had any success finding another place so today they told me I could stay for another few months if I wanted. I had emailed another ward's bishop who forwarded my information to the ward housing coordinator who responded and said there are a few possibilities but asked what I was looking for. I responded but haven't heard back yet... I do like the area I'm currently in and would like to stay in this area, but it's a little better off and apparently poor people don't live here... :(

I also went home this weekend which was nice, except it was hot! The humidity was really thick on Friday (okay I think it was like 25% humidity but that's a lot for Utah in the summer) and we went to the "Bee's game" (they didn't actually play) that night and I thought I was going to melt! The trip didn't start off the best, first of all, the cheap parking at Denver International was all full so I had to park in the "economy" lot which costs $10 a day (it ended up costing me $36 to park there from Thursday night at 5:00 PM to Sunday night at 10:30 PM)! What a rip off! Then the security line was ridiculously long, which it always is at that airport... Then when I went to check my bag, they have my flight coming in at 8:30 instead of 7:00. I figured this wasn't too bad and went on my merry way... Well by the time I went from checking my bag to getting to the terminal, the flight was now scheduled to take off at 9:20. So I called home and told my Dad the status and got something to eat. After I was done, I checked the departure time again and this time it was at 9:40. Eventually it became 10:05 which is where it stayed but was not when we took off... We probably were boarding at around 10:05 and then didn't actually take off until after 10:20. So I didn't get into Salt Lake until around 11:45 PM. Other than the Bee's game on Friday night, we ate at Cafe Rio (which I have been missing), went on a bike ride in City Creek Canyon (which I once again showed how out of shape I am and only made it for 4 miles), went to Leatherby's, and went to Logan for a family reunion and visited the Logan city cemetery where pretty much all of my relatives are buried (I wanted to go see my cousin's headstone) and stopped at my aunt's house where we saw a snake on the way out and I of course had a little freak-out... I don't care what kind of snake it is, I hate them all! It was a great trip and I was very unhappy to be coming back to Denver! I have decided I need to get more involved in things and maybe I'll enjoy it more out here...

Work has gotten more busy which I'm grateful for! I am currently doing some research for my boss on populations we need to better target for mental health messaging, working on some curriculum for our WE CAN! program (it's a program for mental health consumers in the state of Colorado), and continuing on with the volunteer management system... I have decided I hate volunteer management so don't expect me to look for a career in that when I'm done!

The pictures are: the view of downtown Salt Lake up by City Creek and the state capital, there is an entire building there that wasn't there when I left 3 months ago and I bet the city will be completely different the next time I come home! My little bro and I after our pitiful bikeride (that was my fault), and then my little bro and I and my mom and I at the bee's game on Friday night.

You don't know what you've got til it's gone...

2009-07-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

So first of all, I don't know how I never saw this background before... I looked all over for one relating to the Yankees and never saw one! This one is my favorite player, Derek Jeter their short stop who was just voted yet again to the upcoming All-Star game in St Louis (yes I assisted by voting for him several times). But enough about that...

As I'm sure you are all WELL aware, about a week and a half ago, one of the biggest superstars of all time died... At the time, I didn't think too much about it. I was actually more worried about getting home from work... It was raining/hailing so badly at one point you couldn't see out the windows of the building! When that haze finally settled down, you could see the parking lot and Colorado Blvd were beginning to flood in certain spots. As I drive a Honda Civic, this worried me more than just a little bit but I decided to find a new way home from work and I made it home just fine. On my way home, EVERY station in Denver was playing Michael Jackson's songs and were talking calls from HYSTERICAL people... I was actually quite shocked at how many of the songs I knew and enjoyed! This continued for the next day or so and I decided I needed to download his songs since I enjoyed so many of them! It's quite funny too, because here we are on July 6th and I'm still not sick of them! I wish I would have enjoyed his music more while he was alive. Love him or hate him, the man was a musical icon and truly THE King of Pop.

This has gotten me to thinking about many things, but one in particular: enjoying what/who we've got while we've got them. Not that I needed a high profile death to help me realize that. It has been a dream of mine for quite some time to move out of Utah and more specifically to move to Denver. As my previous posts state, I have a love/hate relationship with this city and the constant hate that started a few weeks ago continues. I grew to hate, not even just hate, I LOATHED being in Utah over the last few years for many different reasons but now I can see what I loved about it: the fact that there are mountains over the entire state and Salt Lake is in a valley (Denver is on the front range of the Rockies so everything east of it is completely flat... this is shocking as Colorado has a reputation for being so mountainous but I don't think they deserve it!); my family but most especially my Mom, living where I'm currently living and seeing somebody else's parenting style has made me appreciate my Mother so much more; I can find plenty of LDS roommates to live with; people do other things besides drink; the streets made more sense (although I'm picking up on it more here, but they tell you all the streets are in Alphabetical order and they are NOT! mostly they are though, but not always!), and I'm sure there are other things I'll think of later but this post is becoming ridiculously long! On the flip side, I really do need to start enjoying Denver and Colorado more while I'm here. We did go camping this weekend in the Comanche Wilderness Area which is close to Roosevelt National Park (I think) in Northern Colorado and I actually enjoyed it! We backpacked into our camping spot which was about 2 miles in... I made it the whole way without needing somebody to carry my stuff and I had close to 40 lbs on my back! This is quite a feat for me as I am horribly out of shape! (I'm surprised my CHES has not been revoked!)

Lastly, I have AGAIN given my 30 days notice to my land lady and this time I will for sure be moving out! Not sure quite yet where I will go but I will NOT be staying here!

Pictures: obviously Michael Jackson from when I liked him best because he's Bad! (okay sorry for that...), and one of the Rockies here in Colorado, the trees are red because there is a huge pine beetle infestation that if not corrected will destroy all the pine trees in the mountains. (the only way it can be stopped is if there is an incredibly cold winter this year, meaning it would need to stay below freezing every day... even though it's cold in the mountains, it usually does not stay that cold every day) The first one is me with Sophie (left) and Amanda (center) being silly (you can tell I was more cooreced to do this, maybe because I'm sober?). I didn't get very many photos so once I get more I will post them and explain more about the trip.

Cellulitis Take 2?

2009-06-29T21:44:00.001-07:00

The saga continues... So as I mentioned in much earlier posts, I had thought that I had cellulitis in my big toenail but after seeing my podiatrist he said that it was not cellulitis but just an infected ingrown toenail. Well, he fixes ingrown toenails a little differently... He cuts out the ingrown part first and then 4-8 weeks later he goes back in, cuts out more, and kills the nailbed... Everyone I've ever talked to who has had it done has said that they have had this all done in the same visit. So this last time I went to him, I explained that I was moving out of state in a week and my insurance won't cover anything pre-existing blah blah blah but he still wouldn't do it and said he could code it so they wouldn't think it was pre-existing. So I get my new insurance card and fax a copy of it to them so the MA there calls to verify they'll cover and mentions it's pre-exisiting... Yeah, thanks for that one genius! So she calls me and asks if I have a letter of prior coverage, which at the time I didn't but now I do... Although it does me absolutely no good because I'm an Americorps volunteer and we don't have "employer-sponsored" health coverage... I think it's total crap that the Federal Government will pass a law (HIPAA) that they will make everyone else follow but exclude themselves from! So anyway, I do not have my toenail completed because they've now been tipped off by both the Dr's office and myself when I raised the ruccus about the pre-existing thing (which is when they told me they were HIPAA exempt... B.S. I say and I think insurance companies should be suing the hell out of the feds for that one!!!) Anyway so my toenail is looking pretty bad and this past week started to hurt so on Saturday I went into Urgent Care (I'm going to quit doing that). He told me I need to get it killed and that I have cellulitis... So back on an antibiotic I went! I'm not sure if it's the antibiotic or if I caught some stomach bug but I have been really sick since Saturday night. I figured it was the antibiotic (although I was on it the first cellulitis diagnoses and was fine!) but after speaking to my mom tonight, she told me there is some stomach bug going around in Utah so maybe it's out here too... Who knows? Both Derek Jeter and Johnny Damon were benched this weekend with the stomach flu so maybe it's nation wide??? Well, since I feel every post needs a pic and I don't think anyone wants to see a picture of my toenail, I will post a couple of Derek Jeter and the backshot is him and Johnny Damon. This was last Thursday, right before he got sick... And celebrated his 35th birthday. Happy Birthday again Derek!

2 month anniversary!

2009-06-25T21:01:00.000-07:00

Well I haven't posted a new entry in quite a while so I thought I would do that now. It's especially fitting that today is my two month anniversary of living in Denver. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I go back and forth between loving it and hating it here and this week I have been hating it... I'm not really sure why, maybe because the place I live doesn't have air conditioning and it's been really hot! I have been EXTREMELY grateful for the rain we've had this week to cool everything down! It was hailing so badly this afternoon you couldn't see outside the windows at work. Here's to hoping for more rain! I just hope the tornadoes don't come back... There were at least three a week it seemed for several weeks! I may have found a roommate so everyone keep your fingers crossed that I am out of here by August 1st and into somewhere clean and cool!
Work continues to improve and I'm starting to be able to use the skills as a health educator that I went to school and paid thousands of dollars for, as well as picked up during my many years of employment at the Utah Department of Health. Although I have been somewhat stumped as to what exciting things are out there for mental health to use at health fairs, so if anyone has any ideas let me know!
I have no new updates on Logan... They took him to the Children's Hospital in Fresno last week where they ran a ton of tests on him but won't get the results of until next month when they will have to take him back. It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive from their home in Nipomo and they took Christian with them and he did not do well on the trip so they've decided that Phillip (my brother) will take Logan by himself when he goes back. Anna would do it but she has really bad back problems and has a hard time driving that far. Logan is well behaved and will take a bottle and pacifier so they think it will be fine. Christian would not take either a pacifier or a bottle but because Logan was in the NICU for so long, he had no other choice. He does breastfeed well and he only gets breastmilk if he does get a bottle. He seems like a normal baby so they're still waiting and hoping for the best.
Well I have rambled on long enough. I always feel like I need to post pics so here are some of City Park I took this week when I was bored stiff.

Logan, blanket, and randomness...

2009-06-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

It was finally determined the other day that my nephew Logan has had a stroke at some point and that has more than likely been his problem the entire time... He saw a neurologist who determined the three blood clots on his brain had dissolved and gave him the okay to go home. He still has clots in his Renal Vein and a small one in his Vena Cava but they are starting to dissolve as well. The Dr's believe he has a blood disorder that is causing all of the clots and he will be seeing a hematologist and pulmonologist in Fresno in a couple of weeks. It is not known what the long-term effects of his stroke but the neurologist said most of her patients go on to lead normal lives. About 30% of infants who experience an Ischemic Perinatal Stroke suffer from a form of hemiplegic cerebral palsy but it doesn't show up for quite some time so for now they're just going to wait and see while hoping for the best. My parents flew out on Memorial Day and spent the week out there so I'm attaching some pics of him and one of my other nephew, Christian.
I finally finished the blanket I was knitting for him so I will send it to them sometime this week since they can finally use it. I am attaching pictures of it as well as the outfit my mom bought for him that matches it.
As for finding a new place... Most large apartment complexes in Denver require that you make three times the monthly payment each month so I will more than likely not be living alone... My landlady kind of talked me into staying here too and it is really cheap... I need to find things to do so I am not ever home. This weekend I did okay with that... Friday night we played Frisbee in Cheeseman park (which is a really big park here in Denver that I guess was built on an old cemetery or something) then went to dinner at Chipotle (a little burrito joint that is not nearly as good as Cafe Rio) and then I was supposed to volunteer at an ice cream social put on by one of the politicians here in Denver but it was raining/hailing so we watched a movie at one of my friends house. Yesterday I went to a concert in Loveland, CO with my friend who lives in Fort Collins, CO so I was gone for most of the day. Our tickets were free and the acts were: Josh Hoge, Eric Hutchinson, We the Kings, Plain White T's, and some guy I don't remember... We actually didn't stay for the last two acts but had fun for the other three!

Back by popular demand!

2009-06-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

Although I didn't really think anybody was reading this, I found out today that people actually are and have been waiting for my updates... I have now been in Denver for over a month! It's hard to believe! I vary between loving it and hating it... Today was probably the best day at work I've had since I've been here! I am in charge of creating the volunteer management system and it's been sort of slow going... But we had a meeting today to discuss what I've done and everyone seemed impressed so that was a good re-enforcement as I have been second-guessing my decision to come out here lately... I have not really been enjoying where I'm living so yesterday morning I gave my landlady my 30 days notice that I'm leaving. I don't think she was too happy but oh well. I think I'd like to live by myself so I'm going to look at a studio tomorrow. It's more per month than I'd like to pay and I don't have any furniture but I would really like to live alone! I may change my mind though and just find another roommate or something... Last weekend, some of my friends I met at pre-service orientation and I went up to Fort Collins to spend the day with one of our other PSO friends on her birthday. We ate at Beau Jo's for lunch which is a local Pizza joint that is a Colorado classic apparently. Then we toured New Belgium Brewery which I knew this before but I can now say from firsthand experience that if you don't drink then brewery tours are no fun! So here are some photos from last weekend... You can tell in the second one how much I was enjoying the tour...

New Nephew Logan Marcus Olsen!!!

2009-05-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

Logan was born on May 4th, 2009 at 11:59 PM via emergency cesarean. He weighed in at 7 lbs 4 oz and was 21 1/2" long. The cord was wrapped around his neck three times causing him to be in severe distress. There was also some sort of infection (I'm still not sure what kind and I don't think that Phillip and Anna know either). Logan's heart was very weak when he was born and he had fluid in his lungs that would not go away so they rushed him to the NICU. They decided he needed to be in a higher level NICU and transferred him to a different hospital. He has made little improvements every day and today they took him off the oxygen so he is now breathing on his own! He's also able to be breastfed now! HURRAY!

I'm back... well sort of...

2009-04-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

I'm here in Denver now and I must admit it has not been what I had imagined... Oh well. It has only been a few days and it has gotten better so maybe it will get GREAT with time! Tonight I finally ventured out... I haven't dared to do it because of fear of getting lost... Which I still did a little but I made it back to where I'm living and that's all that counts right? I went out to the temple and the tulips are in bloom and are beautiful! It made me happy to do it even though I had a hard time finding the road to get to it... Maybe that's a metaphor for my life I don't know... I have been having a hard time staying awake at work so I'm going to go to bed now but I'll post a few pics from moving and the temple.

I

Nevermind...

2009-04-16T08:46:00.000-07:00

After getting on an anti-biotic it turns out I just had another ingrown toenail on the other side of where he fixed it last time... Whatever... It's also my last day here at the Department of Health! I've been in the building now for about 6 years!!! It's hard to believe I've been here that long and that I'm actually leaving... but I do love Colorado and have a good feeling about moving there!

Cellulitis

2009-04-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

I have had ingrown toenails on my big toes since I was younger and had them fixed in October and November. Well one started looking a little black so I called my podiatrist's office and his MA tells me I better come in... So I go in, he thinks I have some build up and files it out and tells me to start putting lotion on it... So I wake up on Saturday and my toe is killing me! It looks red and looks like it's getting ingrown on the other side but I know that it's not... It doesn't get better and yesterday I showed one of my co-workers who happens to be an RN. She thinks it looks like cellulitis so I decide to go to the Dr this morning as it is potentiall a life-threatening infection... There's definitely an infection but I have to go back to the podiatrist tomorrow... The other Dr thought I might have to have my toenail completely removed... I don't think I could handle that!!! So here I am trying to get ready to move to a different state and now I have to deal with my toenail... I'd rather have an ingrown toenail thank you!

2 weeks!

2009-04-12T10:56:00.000-07:00

In two weeks I will be in Denver!!! Stay tuned for more (I know that nobody is reading this)

Living in poverty!

2009-03-31T17:07:00.000-07:00

My life in poverty will begin in about 3 weeks! I have been stock piling different things so I will not have to purchase them during my year in poverty.