A little bit of everything

To Utah

2012-01-21T17:50:00.000-08:00

We made a few stops on the way up to Brandon's parents house in Utah. We met up with Lauren and Trent at a new burrito place in Provo-- Rocky Mountain Burrito, it was delicious! So yummy and wonderful customer service.

A second place we stopped was to see Dave and Mandi's new house! The twins had just woken up from their nap, so they were ready to play!

Here they are showing us where their "Elf on the Shelf" was hidden the night before:

Here they are showing us their train! We had a blast. They loved B pulling them around on the train, and I loved having them call me "Cha-Che" and walking around showing me their toys-- so cute!

More Vegas

2012-01-21T17:41:00.000-08:00

Here are some more Vegas photos--

Madeline being a host for our neighborhood get-together:

Getting the fire ready for the night:

Visiting the Venetian:
Visiting the Bellagio:

Foutz Family Christmas Party

2012-01-21T17:40:00.000-08:00

At the end of December, we were visiting Las Vegas the weekend that the Foutz Family Christmas Party was happening! We happily joined in on the fun, it was great to see all that were there! It is held at our local church since there are so many cousins now---we ate, played games, and Santa even showed up. Here are a few pictures:

Here is B as Santa! It was his first time being Santa for the Christmas party, and he even danced a little jig for everyone at the end while they were singing a Christmas carol:

Grandma and Grandpa with my dad:

January Sister Silhouette Photoshoot in Vegas...

2012-01-20T17:21:00.000-08:00

Back in San Diego

2012-01-20T17:15:00.000-08:00

Last week, B and I visited the Children's Pool in La Jolla last week, it is a place where the seals and people share the same beach, it was a little chilly, but we had a nice little visit.

Our Christmas break was wonderful. We visited Las Vegas and Utah to see family and spend time with them and then came back and moved into our new apartment. Brandon started school on the 5th of January and I just started back today. I just started my last semester of nursing school!

One thing I am particularly excited about is an internship I got at a local high-acuity neonatal intensive care unit! I will be going one day a week to meet up with a preceptor and work with her. I will also be taking Critical Care and a Leadership course. And then, I will be done! Yay!

Parents for a day

2011-12-05T22:50:00.000-08:00

Brandon and I got to try our hand at parenting this past weekend. We watched our neighbor's 3 kids while they went away for a night-- the wife surprised her husband with a night away in downtown San Diego-- how fun! I loved being "in" on the secret.

We had them Friday afternoon until Saturday afternoon. They were so fun to be with! We love these little cuties:)

Its a little sunny in this picture-- squinting eyes:

2011-12-02T08:42:00.000-08:00

Over the past few weeks:

I got a new job as a school nurse (only 4 hours a week) at an international private school. It is located on a beautiful overlook in La Jolla. Lets just say its testing my clutch skills to drive up that mountain to work.

Lets also just say that I am getting good at my French greetings. Bonjour! (I could really use Rebecca Peterson or Danielle Gardner in San Diego with me right now :)

I decided I would rather take 3 tests instead of writing one big paper.

I am so grateful for wonderful friends and neighbors that have given us a Christmas tree this year-- now we just need to go find the perfect decorations!

So happy that I went with my sweet and adventurous sister in law to the Anthropologie Black Friday sale-- we scored some super cute and super cheap stuff! (extra 50% off sale items)

Brandon and I got released from being Sunbeam teachers (which was the BEST calling ever :) Brandon is serving as the youth Sunday School teacher (they think he is funny) and I am in the Primary presidency

Our clinicals this semester have ended- I really enjoyed working a "sober house" with women working through addiction recoveries. Such great people, many of whom never had a great start on life, and now want to make their life better.

After this semester, I have only one more to go!

So grateful for the wonderful family that we were able to spend time with over Thanksgiving. The traveling is always worth it.

I am feeling very blessed.

White Coat

2011-12-01T14:14:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of Brandon's white coat ceremony this semester. He's growing up :)
It was fun to go to his school for something and meet more of his friends! It was good to see some of them again.

Beach house

2011-11-02T20:58:00.000-07:00

I dream of moving to the coast. Right next to the beach.

I feel like if I were to ever do that, it would be now in life! When I lived in Hawaii, it was about a 10 minute walk to the beach. It was wonderful, but that was different because we were in a little dorm with windows that were like shutters, never fully closed. I loved it there.

We will be moving out of our wonderful "house-sitting" house at the end of December. It has been a little dream living in a house and neighborhood that is filled with parks, wide sidewalks, and a brand new house. We have been very blessed to have the opportunity to live here, but we will gladly welcome the residents back (great people, cute kids: we like them:)

So with no confirmed apartment, I dream of moving to the coast! But I am not ready to leave our great ward! We love the church-family that we have out here and are so grateful for those that have taken such great care of us. With that, I'll live with our 25 minute drive to the beach :) Still not too bad I guess, eh?

Labor Day

2011-10-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

Oh oh! We had some wonderful visitors come over labor day--- Brandon's siblings came! Aubrey, LJ and Dan, and Mike and Michelle.

We went to the beach, watched the hang-gliders, walked around the waterfront, rented a 6 person bike (Surrey-- although there were 7 of us on it), celebrated LJ's birthday, and barbecued! It was wonderful to see them and have them in town. We love when guests come-- it gives us a chance to go out and see some of San Diego!

Sweden

2011-10-26T00:19:00.000-07:00

Holy Moly-- We got stuck in Sweden on our way back from Finland. We were supposed to arrive by boat to Stockholm and have a friend pick us up and drive us straight to the airport. Turns out, that didn't happen! Our flights were canceled from the New York hurricane and so we were waiting to get rescheduled.

Sleeping quarters on the boat (mini cruise boat) from Turku to Sweden. So worth it! Oh and the lighthouse is not real :)

Sunday, August 28th-- We stayed with Brandon's friend in Stockholm (thank goodness he happens to have a friend there!) who Brandon calls Carlsson. Sunday morning, he picked us up and we went to church with him (he is the Bishop of the ward!)

After, Brandon and I did a little self-tour of the city using a map and metro card that Carlsson let Brandon use. I had to buy a pass for me. This was a little tricky since we did not have currency and we knew no Swedish! But we were up for the challenge. Thank goodness a man at the gas station sold metro passes and he spoke English too!

We walked around what looked like important landmarks and saw where the palace. We really only had the energy to walk around Gamla Stan, and after a few hours, we headed back to Carlsson's place.

Carlsson then made us food and offered to take us on a quiet boat ride around Stockholm. I couldn't resist that offer! When we got onto his boat, we found out the boat wasn't working :( But it was a nice little adventure!
Monday, August 29th-- We had Carlsson drop us off early early in the morning to a bus stop that would take us to the airport so we could talk to someone to get on an earlier flight (we were rescheduled for Tuesday). We waited for the Delta desk to open (which actually was in the Ethopian airlines desk-- pretty official, I know), and talked to them. She confirmed that they next flights would be on Tuesday, so we would have to wait. She then proceeded to give us meal vouchers and a hotel to stay in that night! How nice.

At the hotel, we took a nap, borrowed some bikes and ate a nice meal.

Tuesday, August 30th-- Flew through Amsterdam and LA to get back to San Diego! I had to miss one class, but it was so worth it!

Highlights: Carlsson's generosity, beautiful weather, and the cleanliness of the city! There was no graffiti and it felt very clean. I felt the same way about downtown Helsinki. It was very impressive.

Finland

2011-10-25T22:57:00.000-07:00

Wow, Finland. I never thought I would get to really go here. Brandon surprised me with this trip (and the stop to Italy) back in April for our anniversary. He served his mission here from 2004-2006 and I had always heard good things about this place.

He had found a way to get cheap cheap tickets through using sky miles (the only way we would have been able to go!). I was shocked when he told me we were going! We had the perfect break from school at the end of August. He basically did all of the planning, it was wonderful!

Finland Itinerary:

Monday, Aug. 22nd-- fly in to Helsinki, Finland from Rome, sweet Ville picks us up. Visit his family and sleep at Ville's apartment.

Ville's apartment-- eating maakara (basically a fat, special hot dog) and some other Finnish delights. Pretty good! He was a great host to us.

Tuesday, Aug. 23rd-- rent car (for only 24 hours) and drive the 4 hours to Kuopio (where Brandon spent a lot of time on his mission). Visit with Henna and Antti and go eat with more of their family at "Memphis". Go to the Finnish Sauna and drive to the Huttunen's house. Sleep for about 3 hours and jump back in car to get it back to Helsinki to get it there by 8am!

Henna's house. I got to know her when she visited Utah a couple of years ago, and now she is married! These are very sweet, incredibly talented people.

This is the Huttunen family. The mother of the family made this meal for us when we all returned home from the wood sauna late that night (the father of the family was playing his accordion that night as well in the dining hall across from the sauna). I didn't speak the parent's language, but I felt instantly loved walking in. It felt like I was with family. All of their children converse in English perfectly.

Wednesday, Aug. 24th-- meet up with James and Heather who flew in from Phoenix, AZ. Brandon and him served on their missions together for 11 months! We dropped bags off at hotel and toured around city.

Thursday, Aug. 25th-- my birthday! Walk to the mission home on the waterfront of Helsinki. Ville picks us up and we drive about 3 hours to Tampere, another place Brandon served his mission. Visit a tower, meet up with friends to eat and then go see the new church where I was surprised with a birthday party from about 25 new friends that came to see me! (And Brandon, James and Heather of course). We met such wonderful people there! Take train back to Helsinki.

In Tampere with Tomi, Iina and their darling baby at a Mexican restaurant. Such a great couple!

Brandon at the Finland mission home on the waterfront of Helsinki before we went to Tampere with Ville. Very neat to go back and see. We interrupted the missionaries there with our visit! James knew some of the missionaries there because he had taught them at the MTC before they went!

My sweet birthday surprise complete with lots of new friends, a birthday sign, cake and plenty of other goodies! So grateful for all of these nice people. It was really fun to meet them all. It was so nice of them to throw a party for someone they had not met yet! (self-timer picture:)

We went and visited Ville's sister and her husband. She showed up at the door with a kitty and birthday button for my birthday! Brandon was sure up to something, telling everyone it was my birthday. I almost took the kitty home, but decided to leave it with them :)

Friday, Aug. 26th-- Morning ferry to Suominlinna island, afternoon trip to Fazer chocolate factory and then dinner with friends in downtown Helsinki. Hung out downtown while a large city festival was going on.

Beautiful Suominlinna! A fun little island to explore around. It was used to protect the harbor of Helsinki a long long time ago.

Yummy Fazer chocolate factory with Tuomas and Greta and a few more friends. So glad that we got to meet up with them a few times throughout our trip! I loved getting to know them. The chocolate factory was a blast. They send you in a room at the end of the tour with bins of chocolate all for you! The only rules are: no water and no taking any chocolate out. I had plenty and then of course we were all dying for water after many bars of chocolate! Good thing they gave us our little to-go bags with more chocolate for later :)

That night we met up with more friends downtown Helsinki. We ate a nice dinner, walked around and saw all sorts of artsy things going on around the city. (I think it was "art night"?). It was so great! Fun fact: The guy in the orange shirt served a mission with my cousin, Ryan. Brandon knew him as a teenager in Finland. Small world. Pretty cool.

Saturday, Aug. 27th-- found out our flights home were canceled. Took most of day to try to reschedule. Said farewell to James and Heather (they flew out the next day from Helsinki). Train to Turku and overnight boat to Stockholm, Sweden.

So grateful for this wonderful trip! Many other pictures are posted on facebook. These are just a few.

Last but not least, this is on Saturday when we found the drinking trolley! There is a bar in the trolley. Great way to safely transport yourself when you drink a little too much. But then you end up drinking more. Counter-intuitive? Hmmm probably :)

School

2011-09-22T20:34:00.000-07:00

I have more to blog about our trip, but, school seems to like to take some of my time.

I am in gerontology, community health, and EKG course this semester.

For gerontology, we are supposed to find an older adult (over 70) to interview four different times throughout the semester. Since I do not have a grandparent here in San Diego, I went to the downtown Senior center 3 weeks ago to find a nice and talkative older adult to work with me.

I thought I found the perfect person, she was kind and talkative with a crazy personality. She gave me her phone and address and we set up an appointment.

The next week, I called ahead, her phone was disconnected, I went to the senior center for our appointment-- no show! I go to her apartment-- no where to be found! In her hall, I found another senior and we talked for a long time. She gave me her number too :)

Now this week, I go again to find either of them. I found the first lady and she said that she was too busy. Humph. And the other one was not at her apartment.

Too bad the assignment is due Wednesday!!! Does anyone have an older adult for me to spend some good quality time with here in San Diego?!

Alright. Enough complaining. I will use all of my resources and find someone!

Rome

2011-09-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Colosseum audio tour :)
On top of the dome after a long hike up stairs to look over the Vatican
Beautiful and ridiculously huge St. Peter's Basilica (it can hold over 60,000 people and has the largest dome in the world)
Best pizza ever! Weighed by the gram, toasted, and folded in half for us to bring to Trevi Fountain :)
Michelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica

Our visit to Rome started at night with a visit to the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, and Pantheon using the Metro system. Like Venice, it was hot during the day, but turned very magical at night. I especially loved when we got our pizza for dinner and took it over to sit on the steps of the Trevi Fountain to eat and watch the people and water. It was quite the hang-out joint at night.

The next morning (Sunday) we went straight to the Vatican and visited St. Peter's Basilica. This church is indescribable! It was so vast inside the body of the church. For example, mass started while we were in there, but you couldn't even see mass from the entrance because it was so far to the front of the church. They let visitors in the rest of the church while mass was going on and the 2 separate occurrences were not interrupting each other.

We noticed that there were people at the very top of the dome, so we went back to the entrance and found out that you could pay 5 euros to walk to the top of the church. So we did it! It was a little workout and very cramped when walking at the very top around the dome, but it was so worth it! I still cannot comprehend how the people about 500 years ago could build such a structure!

After, we took the metro back to the Colosseum and forum to go inside (the night before we just looked from the outside). What a cool place! I love how all of these sites in Italy are just built right into their modern city. For example, right when you get off of the metro stop, you walk out of the doors and the Colosseum is a huge panorama right in front of you! A downside to this is the decay that the emissions cause on these structures. You can see the black coating on the side of the Colosseum by the street.

Favorites of Rome: Night time, the architecture, the food, the history (I still have so much to learn!)
Unexpected Happenings: a few huge blisters (I guess this wasn't unexpected), and the heat-- I felt like I was walking around Vegas!

Day one in Rome: Colosseum, Arch of Constantine, incredible pizza, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon at night
Day two in Rome: Vatican City(St. Peter's Basilica, but not Sistine chapel, it is closed on Sundays), pasta at a nearby cafe, inside the Colosseum, Forum, Palatine Hill, the Spanish Steps, gelato

Venice

2011-09-02T03:07:00.000-07:00

Brandon surprised me with this trip back in April for our anniversary after he had been planning on it for months. The main point of the trip was going to Finland, but we just stopped by Venice, Rome and Stockholm on the way to and from :)

Venice was just a little dream city. It was quite hot, so we were grateful for the public water fountains that they have everywhere to cool off and fill up your waterbottle.

We started the day by just exploring the streets and canals (some advice that we had gotten before). It is amazing how little the "streets" are! We got lost while exploring and after a couple of hours tried to find our way back. Man, the maps are even hard to follow there! There is really not any organization in the "city planning", but I think that is where the charm is! This island is just built on top of itself.... and buildings were just added on top of each other.

We eventually followed the signs to San Marco and enjoyed the ornate basilica and palace views. We even went in with the pigeons in the plaza. Did you know that Mark (who wrote one of the gospels) is supposed to be buried under this basilica? His bones were basically stolen and then they built this huge church on top of him.

Favorite things of Venice: bridges, night time with the lights and music, the tiny little streets, the beautiful water fountains, the grand canal, the gondolier's striped shirts.
Unexpected happenings: How much graffiti there was, and the lack of locals walking around (I think August is their vacation month, so many must have been gone :)

Day 1: Explore the city, eat gelato, dinner at cafe on the canal-front
Day 2: St. Mark's Basilica, San Marco plaza, more gelato, leave on train to Rome!

Vacation

2011-08-31T13:52:00.000-07:00

We just came back from a wonderful vacation. Here is how it went:

San Diego------------------(plane)----------> New York

New York------------------(plane)----------> Venice, Italy

1.5 days in Venice

Venice, Italy----------------(train)----------> Rome, Italy

2 days in Rome

Rome, Italy-----------------(plane)---------> Helsinki, Finland

5 days in Helsinki with roadtrips to Kuopio and Tampere
Met up with James and Heather and many Finland friends

Helsinki, Finland------------(train)--------->Turku, Finland

Turku, Finland-------------(boat)----------> Stockholm, Sweden

2 days "stuck" in Sweden

Stockholm, Sweden---------(plane)----------> Amsterdam

Amsterdam----------------(plane)-----------> Los Angeles

Los Angeles----------------(plane)-----------> San Diego

Pictures to come!
(the one above is a dip in the lake after the Finnish sauna)

Posting once a month is okay right?!

2011-08-10T07:32:00.000-07:00

Hey hey! This post is for Mandi :)

In the beautiful land of San Diego this past month, we have been filling our lives with school, school, and more school. It has been BEAUTIFUL outside, but we have not been enjoying it as summer should be enjoyed :)

We have had some pretty cool moments at school though-- Brandon passed a big exam in the middle of the summer that made it so he had a lighter school load the rest of the summer, he got to go to a pool for school and learn water therapy, and he found out a couple sites for his internships which one should include staying here next summer. I have been able to seen a baby's birth, see a c-section, and do some yoga and art therapy with psych patients.

This past Monday, we went to our church's ward family home evening on the beach. They host this every other Monday evening and save a big fire pit for all of us. I didn't get any pictures of the actual event, the adults we hung out with or even the food we ate. What I did get pictures of are the cute kids we got to hang out with while we were there:

Cancun

2011-08-09T07:46:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from our trip to Cancun! Brandon and I got to go for 3 of the 7 days Brandon's family was there-- and we were so happy we got to go! It was a blast with everyone there: 2 parents, 10 siblings, 7 in-laws, 12 out the 14 grandchildren, and one nanny :)

The kids love wearing the flippers!

Snorkling:
Some beach volleyball:

It is dangerous to fall asleep in front of the Bishop family:

The whole gang in front of the bus that we squeezed into (everyone who had a seat had at least one person on top of them):

Goodbye Apartment!

2011-07-10T10:01:00.000-07:00

We are moving this week!

Only up the street that is....

I will miss this dear apartment-- it was perfect for us! 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, high ceilings, 2nd floor (so less bugs and it means you can keep your windows open), tons of windows, etc.

BUT, I cannot complain, we are moving to a house! We get to house-sit for a sweet family whom we have been babysitting for the past few months. They are gone for half of the year for his job, so they are too kind to offer us to live there while they are gone.

What I know....

2011-06-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

Two days ago, I was running errands at Trader Joes before I went to the gym. I was wearing my BYU alumni shirt and normal gym clothes.

As I was walking out, a middle-aged man stopped me and said in an Irish accent-- "Are you Mormon?!"

I said, "Well yes, in fact I am!"

"Well, you don't look like a Mormon"

He seemed like he was just trying to be friendly, so I replied, "Oh really? Why not? I feel like I look Mormon...."

He might have just been trying to push a little but said...."Well, don't Mormons... you know... like have all of their husbands and such?"

I quickly replied, "Oh no way! That is not us..." and I explained that those on TV with all of the wives are the "FLDS"

He then said, "Well what do you do?"

"What do I do?" hmmm, well I go to nursing school, and I am married.... etc. And I am from Vegas....

"Mormons from Vegas?!?!" Yes. Lots of Mormons live in Vegas.

Nevertheless, lots of misconceptions. haha. I went on to tell him some of the things that we believe in... and that we think we are pretty normal people living normal lives :)

Let me just explain some of the things that we DO believe in based on what he asked:
-We DO believe in Christ. He is our Redeemer and has saved us from our sins. He is God's Son. We are Christians and our name is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. We are the Church of Jesus Christ in the "Latter Days"... basically modern-day times.
-We have a Book of Mormon that is another testament of Jesus Christ. You know how Christ came to the people over in Jerusalem? Well he came to the people who were living in the Americas in that time too! Pretty sweet. The Book of Mormon is an ancient record of Christ and his followers in the Americas.
- We have a prophet on this earth today, his name is Thomas S. Monson. He leads this church today being directed from God.
- The missionaries that are out there preaching-- they are great people :) They are not forced to be out there, they have the full decision in their hands. The church encourages to know the truth of the church for themselves before they go. From my own personal experience of seeing my family members go out and such-- they are immensely blessed from going.
- The purpose of this life is to learn and grow. No one is perfect on the earth today-- we all have to go through trials and struggles (but also lots of happy times) to get to be better people.
- We can live with our families again when we pass-away. There is such thing as eternal families!

There is so much more, but those are some of the basics :)

www.mormon.org

My favorite....

2011-06-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

This is from our last trip to Utah-- I love this sequence of pictures, this little girl, Brandon's niece, loves him.

Family Dinner

2011-06-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here we are at Foutz family dinner in Vegas on Sunday over Memorial Day Weekend. This Foutz family dinner every few Sundays in Vegas has been a tradition for over 20 years!

Here is my little cousin: This was her first pose--

Now she smiled!
Youngest and the oldest:

Just Dance Party outside party
The Aunts and Uncles are more into it than the kids....

Cute girls:

I wish I got more pictures!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-06-05T10:36:00.000-07:00

'This past weekend we got to go to Vegas for our little break. The weekend started off with a bike ride through old train tunnels to the Hoover Dam! Here we are standing on the new cross over bridge overlooking the Dam.

Hot biker dude:
Dad with one of the tunnels:

Everyone besides the parents:

Ill post more details on sweatingsisters.blogspot.com

Silly California

2011-06-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Somehow we fell into the trap of every other Californian and decided to go to Vegas for Memorial Day weekend. This is us coming back. Whenever there were 2 lanes (most of the time right out of Vegas), we saw lots of brake lights and slowed down to 30mph. Fun stuff huh?

Good thing those extra hours were TOTALLY worth it!

need more pictures

2011-05-19T17:59:00.001-07:00

Thank you for the support with running! I think I will keep it up... it makes me feel good.

I really haven't been taking pictures because we haven't been to anywhere cool lately! And that is what determines whether I take pictures or not :)

I took my last final of the semester on Wednesday! Oh yeah. Right after, I dropped my fellow classmate off at the airport and I went straight to ikea and the mall. It felt so good walking around not having to think about Myasthenia Gravis, Digoxin, or therapeutic communication.

While I was walking around in the fancy little mall, I felt really frumpy and gross (I had woken up at 5:30 that day and taken a final.... just not a good-lookin day).

So guess what I did?

I threw my hair up in a top-bun and popped my collar of my bright orange coat (and I NEVER pop a collar).

I instantly felt more confident! And then the Anthro worker said that she loved my coat. Wow.

Haha. Basically this post is about how top-knots actually have a very good place in this world.

Thank you.

The end.

Done and Done

2011-05-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

8 miles---- CHECK!

Yesterday I was scheduled to run 7 miles and I convinced B to come with me (he can run forever without having to build up endurance, sheesh).

I quickly went on "map-my-run" and mapped a new route around our neighborhood area that would be about 7 miles.

We went on our journey at about 6 pm in a little bit of some drizzly weather.

As we were coming to the end, I noticed that we had gone about 6.5 miles and we still had a while to go! So we just kept running. Turns out it was pretty much exactly 8 miles all the way home. Perfect! ha.

So we did it without meaning to I guess. I'll take it!

What to do now? I feel like even though I haven't gone as far as all of these racing people, my knees are starting to feel it, and I know that can be irreversible-- is it worth it for running? Or should I take up something that is not so hard on the knees (I feel so old typing that)?

Sunbeams

2011-05-05T09:08:00.000-07:00

Here is our Sunbeam class that we teach every Sunday (3-4 year olds in our church). This has been my favorite calling ever! I look forward to it every week.

This particular day, we went outside for part of it while the kids had to do a little scavenger hunt and it led them to a blanket with a bottle of bubbles outside (The bubbles represented the world in our lesson-- we were learning about Adam and Eve and the creation....we had it relate. ha). We played with bubbles while the kids we jumping for joy. As we were reverently walking back inside (actually, this time the kids were running and leaping back inside), one of the kids said, "best. day. ever!" , then 4 or so other kids said the same thing! It was awesome.

We came back in and read a little book to get them settled down. I love these little ones so much! Such a fun age.

summertime is here!

2011-05-04T20:07:00.000-07:00

I have had the pleasure of watching these cuties a few times this past week or so and am loving it!!

Don't you wish your summer was like this? Play at the waterpark and lay down on the warm ground and laugh with your brother. So darling.

(I only feel okay about putting pictures of other people kids as long as I don't show their faces or name names:))

Woah.

2011-04-27T21:31:00.000-07:00

Can you tell finals are coming up or what?

Well, guess what? I have had the whole day off and have not been too productive! Figures. B has been gone for a bit, but is coming back very shortly. I seem to be a bit more productive when someone else is around! haha.

A few things....

I got a sun burn today while studying outside.... AND B wants to go to the beach tomorrow for a bit

I got to go back to Utah this past weekend and spend a couple of days with family.

I tried running my 6.5 miles this week, but my IT band was getting really tight at mile 3 AND it was soooo hot in the gym that I stopped and texted B all about the tightness of the IT band. Here's to next week!

I am getting the summer-adventure fever!! Ready for some fun this summer (though it will be the harder semester of nursing school, I WILL have some adventures!)

I am SO grateful for sweet neighbors who invited me over for Easter dinner!

I am also grateful for awesome nursing friends that are great study buddies and wonderful at encouraging me!

Tomorrow I will be in the Pre- and Post- Op care unit at the hospital. Hopefully I will be able to start lots of IVs (although everytime I still get so nervous!). But, being in that area of the hospital means that I will get to leave a little later than the normal 5:20 am on Thursdays. yay!

Hope you are enjoying the encroaching summer!

(now back to studying....)

Sauce-y

2011-04-12T12:26:00.000-07:00

My mom surprised me with a HUGE squirt bottle of Jdawgs sauce in January after our last trip to Utah (we ate there 2 times in one trip......so good)

I really like their dogs with sourkraut, banana peppers, special sauce and sometimes onions-- and especially on their lightly toasted fresh buns. www.jdawgs.com is where it is at :)

Well, today I put it in my lunch! I had a salad and then broiled wheat bread with shreaded chicken, special sauce and a mixture of parmesean, cheddar and mozzarella cheeses. I might be having this again for dinner it was so good. haha

Any other ideas for a huge bottle of the best sauce in the while world?

Do you live by a Rite Aid?

2011-04-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

And do you like nail polish? (Not the nice kind... the cheapo type stuff)........

Then I have news for you!!!

Go by the end of the week and you get free nail polish!

Print out the coupon from Coupons.com for 1.50 off 2 NYC cosmetics. I printed out 2 of these....

You can use this anywhere and get cheap polish, but Rite Aid has their NYC brand 40% off right now, so that means that their cheapest nail polish is only $0.60, when you combine that with the coupon, it is free!

I purchased five polishes, used two coupons and "paid" $-.05 for it, and paid 0.26 tax, so it was a total of $0.21!

Thekrazycouponlady.com can tell you more about this deal :)

2011-04-07T15:58:00.001-07:00

Today another man kissed me on the cheek.

He was 82 and darling.

Anniversary Present

2011-04-06T09:00:00.000-07:00

Brandon surprised me with a present for our anniversary on Sunday! Beautiful roses (brought Saturday after Priesthood) and one of those nike trackers for my ipod/shoes! I am excited to try it out. It tells you all sorts of things-- like your pace and how far you have gone. yay!

Me posing with my presents:

Beautiful

2011-04-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

When I was in Vegas last week, this sky appeared and it reminded me of a reason I loved growing up in that city-- the beautiful sky! It is so expansive and colorful.

Anniversary

2011-04-03T15:24:00.001-07:00

It was my year to plan a little date for our anniversary this year. Soooo I decided to do a day-date this past weekend.

Here are some of the things we did:

First we went kayaking in La Jolla cove. Weather.com showed that it was a pretty sunny sky with a little cloud over top starting at 10am, so I figured if we went at 10:15am, that it would be the perfect time and day to do this! Well, the sky looked more like this: full of clouds with 2 feet opening of sun. haha. It was still in the 60s, with a bit of wind, but we decided to still go! We had the reservations, so I guess we had to go then anyway:)

We rented a 2-person kayak and went out to explore on our own. When we first got out in the cove, we see animals jumping in the near-distance-- they were dolphins!!! So we hurried over and followed them for a bit.. Totally awesome.

Next, we went and looked over at the caves on the shore, it was too choppy to get close, but a great sight to see-- the caves and then the humoungous towering above the shoreline. After, we went closer to the Seals on the shore and found about 4 or 5 in a little circle just sitting in the ocean enjoying the waves right next to us! Pretty cool.

As we were kayaking, we saw so much seaweed float under us as we were looking for fish or something cool. The seaweed is so creepy though. I kept thinking how much MORE creepy it would be to see a dead person float under your boat. Good thing we didn't tip over.............. Enough of that, it was so serene and beautiful out on the water and it wasn't even that cold!

Here is us after kayaking:

Next we headed over to Torrey Pines to watch the people taking off at the glider port while we ate a picnic:

I love this view! I feel lucky to live where we are now:

ALSO, I feel lucky to have married this man 2 years ago! He is so wonderful and I am so grateful to have him as my best-friend and husband.

2011-04-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

SPRING BREAK! This was last week. I had a blast visiting Vegas and hanging out with the family. Sadly, I do not have too many pictures from this. I hung out with my mom during the day, went to the gym in the mornings and did some shopping in the afternoon :)

Here is M's track meet-- she got 1st place in the 100 meter hurdles! So good....
In between races I got to go visit my sweet grandparents
One night we roasted marshmallows in the backyard....

And that is basically all of the pictures! Sad.

Other fun things of the week:
playing "just dance" with the younger brother
hot-tubbing with the family
going to the temple with my mom
eating lots of delicious food
going to see Wimpy Kid 2-- (these are hilarious movies)
going to Yogurtland with D-ho!

So so fun. Glad I was able to visit, but also glad to get back to the hard-working husband at home in SD.

Girls Like series....

2011-03-28T17:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this is a big deal-- my brother, "I" normally makes high-tech stop motion with lego figures, BUT, to incorporate real people, he started his "Girl's Like" series. haha (basically because we wanted to make a video) Soooo here is my debut in my first stop motion movie! Woohoo! ps we made it in like 10 minutes.....
Okay... it is totally cheesy, but I LOVE it! He has such a creative mind... he will go somewhere far in the future (he is only in middle school now)...

Girls like chocolate

2011-03-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a little test video my brother made-- he is getting into stop motion movies.

Short and simple. but cute.

JB

2011-03-23T21:20:00.000-07:00

Brandon left to go to a basketball game at church.

I am working on a term paper.

Okay... only kinda working the paper.

I have to...I mean get to..... wake up at 5.

Justin Bieber has me sucked into his youtube videos. (I love the song "Love me") haha.

I should probably just go to bed.

:)

2011-03-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

This video here brings a lot of peace amidst all of the natural disasters that are going on around the world.... and all of those that lost so many lives in Japan.

I am so happy that I know that my family can live forever together when we all pass on.

Okay, Ill take free pasta!

2011-03-20T08:20:00.000-07:00

I have been on a little coupon kick lately, like a lot of the rest of the blogging world. Here is part of my most recent purchase:

I got all of that for $3! And the pasta was completely free (+tax)! I have been following thekrazycouponlady.com and she tells me how to get things for free :)

Here is the link/explanation for this deal: Kroger. You have to print out a few coupons and match it with their deal (Buy ten items, get $5 off). If you have any Kroger store nearby (ie Smiths, Ralphs), you should go get free pasta too! I especially love this one because the pasta is whole wheat.

New swimsuit!

2011-03-15T11:38:00.000-07:00

Sooo I made a little goal with myself:

For the summer,

If I can run 8 miles in one stretch,

I will get to buy a new swimsuit!

8 miles may not seem a lot to you runners (my sister is training for a lot longer run than that), but I get bored and tired running, so it is a lot to me :)

Here are a few cute ones that I found:

Compliments of Jcrew and Anthropologie. (well, um, hopefully one of them goes on sale by the time I get to them)

Notice a theme with the criss-crossy look? I love that. I'm going to keep looking, but in the mean time, I will be studying my brains out for some mid-terms and papers and running on the side.

I made my longer runs on Mondays. I just did 4 miles yesterday. It was more than normal and felt so so good! Hopefully I can double that mileage. haha

Nursing Facts

2011-03-11T09:00:00.000-08:00

Every now and then, I will share some random facts that I learn in nursing school (I know, soooo interesting, right?!). Some may be general knowledge, but it will be new to me at least!

Did you know that if someone is having an asthma attack and they don't have their medications with them, that you can just give them some caffeine?

Yep. There you go. It is a weak bronchodilator, but it can help while the ambulance is on the way!

Sunny days

2011-03-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

We had the perfect weather this past Saturday and then Monday it decided to rain on us and become chilly again! Here are the Saturday pictures in hopes for more sun-kissed days.

This was us at the park roasting our Jdawgs! My mom had surprised me with the sauce from Jdawgs in Provo the last time we were there and this was the first time we got to use it! Now I just need them to bottle their sauer kraut so I can have that as a topping on my homemade dogs too.

Old Town

2011-03-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

Friday we started the day in Old Town San Diego. We found some cool things for the kids to play on and take pictures with.

Boy picture
Girl Picture
Just hanging out. Notice little L's hands folded. haha
I LOVE these next 2 pictures. They make me so happy. These little twins are just pint sized enough to have a little cubby hole in the wall (that is probably meant for some pottery or just for looks)

Friday

2011-03-08T16:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some more pictures from when DMB came to visit! This was on Friday after Old Town. We rented a 6-man bike, went out to a pizza cafe, and then went to Coronado Island beach.

I wish that I had gotten more pictures of us on the bike. It was awesome! We rode along the bay in downtown SD and saw some places that we have not been to yet! The kids liked it for most of the time... but probably got sick of just sitting there. They had the best seats in the vehicle though.

Here are a few pictures:

DMB stayed with us

2011-03-08T08:00:00.000-08:00

We had the pleasure of having D and M stay with us (D is B-rand's brother)! This is family that we got really close to while living in Provo. We got to hang out with them often while going to BYU. They surprised us (with a letter in the mail last week) and came down this past weekend!

It worked perfectly because B had a "Spring Blink" with school off on Thursday and Friday. I had clinicals those days, but after clinicals on Thursday, I found out that clinicals on Friday were cancelled! Perfect.

DMB (D and M Bishop) stayed with us from Wednesday night to Sunday. If you recall, Aunt La came Tuesday -Thursday. That means that we hit our record for people staying in our apartment in one night= 10 people sleeping in a 2 bedroom apartment (just for one night). We didn't plan on it, but it worked out just fine. haha-- or so they say. We were glad everyone was so flexible.

Here are a few random pictures of the week. Later, I will post more specific activities.

Isn't she just so darling??

2011-03-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more pictures from our time with Aunt La and the kids. It was a beautiful day!

Look how cute this little girl is. She loved the little flowers in the grass.

Aunt La!

2011-03-06T17:44:00.000-08:00

Boy, we had quite a wonderful week this past week! We had so many fun visitors.

On Tuesday, Aunt La and her 2 cute kids came to stay with us while they were here to go to Sea World with a group of their friends.

Wednesday I tagged along with them to SeaWorld. We went with a homeschool group and got in for only $7 each! We got to go for a half day and see the exhibits. It didn't include the rides or the big shows, but we had so much see otherwise that we didn't feel like we missed much at all. We are considering doing an "educational" family reunion to Sea World. Think it might work??

I wish I could have spent more time with these guys! They are such great people to be around. I have always loved Aunt La and her fun, relaxed attitude. Her kids are so bright and too entertaining!

A nice weekend.

2011-02-27T20:12:00.000-08:00

B's parents came to visit us this weekend! They came because they REALLY wanted to see us (plus there was a little BYU vs SDSU basketball game. no biggie). Its interesting getting to this stage in life where we get to "host" our parents. We were so glad to have them stay with us!

Have you heard of the show, "Lie to me"? I think I am hooked. J introduced it to us. Have you seen it?

Here are the pictures (for you, mom!):

Us at the basketball game. That man in the back (B's dad), may be BYU's biggest fan! It was great to go to the game with him!

We found some funny posters SDSU had made. Here are a few favorites:
This one is probably a little too far and not true, but they got pretty creative! We just had to laugh at these:
Brandon is explaining something about basketball to us
Jill couldn't resist the sweet little girl scouts working so hard
Papa B found a whip!

I love this picture of them! This is on Coronado island

Thank you for coming! We loved seeing you!!!

Lake

2011-02-20T16:22:00.000-08:00

Today, Brandon and I visited a little lake. It was the perfect way to spend Sunday afternoon. We walked partway around the little lake and have plans to come back with our bikes!

Lately we have gotten a lot of rain, so this lake was full and the surrounding areas were so green! There were even a few waterfalls going into the lake.

Rain

2011-02-16T06:56:00.000-08:00

It is raining today!! I love it. It reminds me of Vegas.... I loved the warm rain there.

On a different note, sometimes when I walk out of my apartment, it smells like Disneyland. When that happens, I know its going to be a good day :)

Scenes from the weekend

2011-02-08T09:32:00.000-08:00

We had some wonderful visitors this past weekend! My older sister and her husband came out to visit. They came in Thursday night. B-ran and I were both gone on Friday, so L and T went off and explored.

That night we went to Pat and Oscars:
And celebrated B-ran's birthday with a carrot cake

I love this picture
Gooey cake

The next morning, it was National Nutella Day! So we had pancakes and a little Nutella (thanks La for the reminder)
Mini pancakes
More mini pancakes
Matching sisters!
Saturday, we hung out with some of T's family, cute kids.....
Trent had a good time on his frog

And once again, we enjoyed the Battalion:)
I promise I don't live there, it is just a perfect place to visit! haha
And in Old Town, La found an old Wells Fargo building! Cute cute

We loved having them stay with us! They are so fun to be around. There was certainly plenty of laughter while having them around

First hospital rotation...

2011-02-06T10:17:00.000-08:00

This past week, we had our first hospital rotation this semester. I started this week in the PACU (post- and pre- operative care unit). I bounced back and forth between the two and got to see a few neat things!

I am in a SUPER nice hospital this semester with some of my good friends in the program and a wonderful instructor. So things are going well so far! Also, in this semester, we get to rotate around to different units throughout the semester (which students in my program normally don't so their second semester). We get to go to the PACU, ICU, Med-surg floors (which contain mostly cancer and cardiac patients), the ER, a Cariac Cath Lab, and Special GI procedures. Yeah, I am excited. It will give us an opportunity to see all different kinds of nursing.

This past week I got to help with a few patients recovering from anesthesia and take lots of vital signs to make sure that they were recovering okay.

The first day, I was hanging out with some of the Pre-op nurses and I let them know that if they see anyone with good veins, that I would want to try an IV on them. One of the nurses went over to a 30-something man to start his IV. I told him I was a student and introduced myself to watch. We were chatting away and we mentioned that he had good veins. He then offered to let me start an IV on him. Of course I wanted to try! The nurse gave me an 18 gauge (the biggest kind), and showed me a good vein in his hand to stick. I pulled his skin and stuck that huge needle in and it worked! I was so happy. Then my instructor walked over, so she saw that I had successfully done one. woohoo!

The second day started with a man blacking out when they were doing the IV! Good thing that I did not try on him. I would have not quite known what to do. They had to lay him back and give him some meds to get him back and his heart rate up!

ANYWAY.... I will not write about IVs forever. My sister is in town! I will share more about that soon :)

IV time!

2011-02-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Can I just say????

I STARTED MY FIRST IV!!!

Wow, let's just be honest, I was totally freaked out to do it! We started last Friday at our hospital that we are going to be at in a little conference room. We got out our $45 IV kit (don't get me started on this --- it all fits into a ziploc, and it has to cost $45??), and we scoped out each other to see who we would want to stick our needles into.

I volunteered as the first student to get the IV from another student. I just had to get it over with. Soooo my friend tried it on me. She did great, except over shot the vein just a little bit and barely missed. It didn't really hurt too bad surprisingly! She did a great job though.

Now it was my turn to try it on someone else.

I had another student volunteer to let me try it on her. We all have to be very trusting here:) I stuck my needle in at what I thought was the right angle, paused, and pushed it in some more-- Out of pure luck, I had made it into the vein! I slid in my little catheter and retracted the needle. IT WORKED! I was on a high the rest of the day. It felt so good to overcome something I was dreading about nursing school. If only it could work all of the time. We will see next time I try!

Happy Birthday!!

2011-02-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

It is Brandon's birthday today! The way he is approaching this birthday, I think that he wishes that is was his 22nd birthday, so we are going to pretend that he is turning 22! (He wants to remain young :)

This man is so awesome. Here are a few things that I love about him:

He is so strong. I swear that his biceps can lift anything or anyone. This has been proved too many times. A few weeks ago, he had to move the ginormous tv (the screen is not that huge, it is basically just really heavy). It has never been moved before by someone singly. He didn't feel like calling anyone up, so he moved it by himself! All the way on top of a chest of drawers! Crazy....This is at Cape Point
He is very funny. This is when he performed as a "clown" for his niece's birthday party. Ha. They ate it up! He even designed his own costume:)
He is inventive and a very hard worker. Remember this? He built a shelf for our washer and dryer for when we lived in Provo and we didn't have a stackable washer and dryer. It worked great!
He is sooo great with kids. I know that he will be the best dad ever. He is SUPER patient and so fun for the kids to play with. This has been very helpful in our Sunbeam class when we have up to 12 children....
He is so handsome!! Look at that strut :) I LOVE you!!!

Okay... just a few more pictures.... :)

2011-01-31T22:24:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more cute pictures from this last week :)

These girls gathered flowers for me to make a bouquet for my apartment. It was beautiful for my kitchen....
When at Coronado island, we met this man that makes huge sand castles for people to come look at. He build for 4-6 hours and sits and watches people "Oooo" and "Ahhhh" over his work
Plenty of Uno playing ....
And look how handsome this little guy looks for church! Love it

San Diego Temple/Ships

2011-01-31T14:00:00.000-08:00

Here is a few other things that we did with Bryan and Lindsay's family:

Visited Coronado Beach
Got ice cream at a cute cafe on Orange Ave.
Why do kids LOVE blue ice cream??
This is inside a submarine down at the bay

Looking at all of the old ships

Inside a different submarine!

At the San Diego LDS temple in La Jolla. Trey is running away!
Cute kids!

We are so happy that they visited us!!! Thanks for coming :)

Mormon Battalion

2011-01-31T05:00:00.000-08:00

Like any other visitors, we took our guests to Mormon Battalion. Well, it is fun and free AND you get to learn about San Diego's history as well as LDS history. Pretty cool huh. Here is their website. It is in Old Town San Diego, so we get to see neat sites while we are there.

All dressed up as mormon pioneers :)

Riding in a covered wagon

Bryan and Lindsay

2011-01-30T19:00:00.000-08:00

The next few posts will be about our most recent visitors, Bryan and Lindsay and family! He is a pilot, so they can pretty much fly wherever they want, whenever they want (I am so jealous......Jetblue, are you hiring???)

They only stayed with us the first night and then headed up to their sweet resort just north of us, called The Welk Resort.

Here are a few pictures from the first few days:

We spent a few hours at the beach at sunset. Warning: It looks a lot warmer than it was.

Plenty of burying little girls

Poor little Trey took a face-plant into the water towards the end of the day. He wasn't too happy about that.
Isn't this picture perfect! Notice the bird flying mid-air! Lindsay took this picture. Pretty awesome.

Below Brandon is his remote control boat that he got for Christmas. Ever since he received it, he has been so excited to try it out in the ocean to see how it would be (mind you it is from Walmart. Cost maybe $25). The boat didn't do too well! He had it out there for a while and it made it over a few waves, but when a wave was over 1/2 foot, it would demolish the poor boat!
So sandy....

We had a great time! More posts soon about the rest of their stay......

Lauren's Wedding

2011-01-30T10:59:00.001-08:00

My beautiful sister, Lauren, got married 2 weeks ago in Utah! We went up (of course) to be with her and Trent. It was a beautiful day and it just turned out so perfectly. Trent is a great guy and we are excited to have him join the family!

Here are a few pictures of the day:

Here they are coming out of the Mt. Timpanogos Temple:
One of her best friends, Lacee
My cute parents with them (don't you just love my Mom's jacket? I thought it was a perfect outfit for that day)
Me, my mom and Madeline. She had all of the bridesmaids wear black and she gave us all matching tights and necklaces
The luncheon, put on by Trent's family. You can't see too well in the picture, but the table decorations were SO cute! They were all silver and blue and very eclectic. They served yummy Soups, salads, and desserts
Isaac, Brandon and I went to go pick up the doughnuts for the wedding favor (they were put in monogrammed bags for handout). The doughnuts were a little inside joke for the bride and groom because when they were dating, they didn't want to specifically refer to the ring, instead they would talk about "sparkly doughnuts"
My wonderful Aunts that came for the wedding
Food! Brandon was first in line...... Brandon.......
Dancing
Leaving!

I don't have too many of the detail of the reception on here. To see more, visit Lauren's blog where she will put up more pictures of the day as she gets them from the photographer. She put a lot of thought into their reception and really made it reflect her and Trent. It turned out so well! They are coming to visit us in San Diego and we are so excited to have them!

Back in San Diego!

2011-01-20T11:44:00.000-08:00

I looked out the window and what did I see??

Popcorn popping on the apricot tree!

Well, actually, I don't know what kind of tree this is, but I am going to enjoy how pretty it is! Hopefully it last awhile longer.

2011-01-10T20:10:00.000-08:00

My super cool sister-in-law Aubrey and I had a little baking session during the break. She got a ton of cake decorating items for Christmas, so we wanted to use them. She has been working with fondant for awhile, but we didn't want to bust it out for fun, so we decided to just use regular frosting:

Kelsi tried to steal the show and show you her painting, but you cant really see it:) Sorry Kels, we wanted to show off our awesome 2011 cake.

New Years

2011-01-10T19:47:00.000-08:00

Typically, for New Year's Eve, Brandon's family does a "Polar Bear Plunge" in a pond behind their house--see above picture. This has been done 3 years in a row so far, and they were planning on doing it again this year until a majority vote went towards going to the newly-built cabin for New Years!

The night started off with lots and lots of made up games:

Headstand contest (Brandon's mom is in the black):

Inside baseball:

Jousting:
2-Man Cartwheels:
Basketball with a Cheerios box and a balled-up sock:

Before midnight, we ran out to the hot-tub and hung out there. Right at midnight, we (actually only the girls) jumped in the snow and then back in the hot tub! A little nicer than jumping into an icy pond.... Good times.

Bishop Family Christmas Party

2011-01-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

Warning!

2011-01-08T23:51:00.000-08:00

If you ever accidentally leave your camera with Dave and Mandi, you will end up with a few surprises (and a few almost-naked baby pictures too-- not posted here:)

Wedding Crafts

2011-01-07T20:35:00.000-08:00

Here is a little sneak peek for my sister's upcoming wedding! Her colors are plum, cranberry and gray. They are getting married in Utah next weekend and we are so happy for them. We had fun making the "Wedding Wands" for the send off and the clips for the little girls:

Christmas morning!

2011-01-06T21:34:00.001-08:00

I was a bit apprehensive going into my first Christmas away from home, but the Bishops had enough traditions that were similar and I love being around them, that I had a blast! All of the gifts were placed in from of each person and we went around one-by-one opening a gift. I love that tradition because then you get to appreciate every single gift! Whether big or small.

Speaking of gifts, Brandon thought it would be really funny to wrap items from around the house-- for no apparent reason (well, just to look like there were more gifts... haha). It was hilarious! He didn't know though, that I had put randoms items into one of his gifts to trick him (so he wouldn't guess what it was). Tricky me.

Okay seriously Brandon.... he dressed up for Christmas morning! Who does that??? He does look quite handsome in argyle though.

Nativity

2011-01-06T21:28:00.000-08:00

Here are the pictures from the Nativity on Christmas eve. All I think that I need to explain is that there were no grandchildren there, so someone had to dress up! Here we are. All trying to fit into children's costumes.

Christmas Eve

2011-01-06T21:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas eve was a blast. Here are the pictures from dinner that night. The wonderful lady here on the right is the one who made this great meal for all of us! She is so great to make sure the table looked so beautiful too.

Watch out Aubs!

Cute LJ :)

Cabin. oh. yeah.

2011-01-02T22:51:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, the 19th, Brandon's friend came up to get away from SD and visit Utah. He stayed for a few days. On Sunday afternoon, we went straight up to the Bishop's new cabin. We had a blast! Sledding behind snowmobiles, hot-tubbing, movies, games, etc. Brandon's friend had not been in the snow much before, so we introduced him quickly by taking him sledding for 3 hours. I think that will do the trick.

One thing about the Bishops is that they are really good at fitting a lot of people into any activity. For example, you would think a tandem bike fits two people, but we once rode it to church with 6 people. You would also think that a 5 seater car would hold 5 (or 6) people, but they drive it church with 9 + people in it (notice a pattern??). Also, you would think to have 1 or 2 people sled behind a snowmobile, but they can actually fit in 8 + people behind one. I think they have all got this amazing talent. ha.

We stayed at the cabin until we had to come down on Tuesday morning for Michelle's wedding (yay mich!).

Utah

2011-01-01T20:52:00.000-08:00

After the wedding in Phoenix, we flew to Utah for our 2 week stay. After walking past security, we walked past these cuties! I was totally surprised to find our little twins waiting to pick us up (with their mom and dad)! Don't you just want to eat these cute little kids?

All I can say is that all of the nieces and nephews got an overflow of kisses from us these past two weeks.

Wedding

2011-01-01T09:23:00.000-08:00

Our second stop on our Christmas vacation was Phoenix for my cousin, Craig's wedding. We arrived with my family and stayed with some of the Williams. We had a blast hanging out with family. Here are some of the pictures.

Craig and Keri are such a cute couple and we were so happy to be there with them. Keri looked stunning of course and the reception was beautiful.

Brother Isaac

2010-12-29T07:37:00.000-08:00

Isn't this darling? I love my little brother Isaac. This is him after his violin concert, which we weren't able to go to (we showed up in Vegas right after!)

This is what kicked off our Christmas break.

Over the next few days, I will post pictures of what we have been up to! (for you mom!! haha)

Hair

2010-12-12T22:10:00.000-08:00

I think I forgot how to do my hair. I need some serious help! I haven't had it cut in ages and the color is turning brassy (is that a word?). Anyway, hopefully sometime over Christmas break, I will get it cut and have some style!

The end.

Book wreath

2010-12-10T15:01:00.000-08:00

Here is a little craft from this week. I finally made a book wreath! I know that pretty much everyone has already made one for themselves, but I wanted to join the bandwagon!

Tutorial

no more Saturday lab!!!

2010-12-10T14:57:00.001-08:00

Here is a little picture from our Saturday morning lab. Soooo glad it is over! This was for our final-- that is why we are dressed up.

And meet my friend, Laura. We had every class together this semester and are now crafting buddies. So great!

2010-12-10T14:48:00.000-08:00

Don't be too jealous... but we got to open some presents early! Thanks mom and dad :)

Since we are going to be in Utah over Christmas, my mom sent a few gifts with us over Thanksgiving. They were tempting us for a week or so, and on Sunday we decided to open them! So fun. Loved it.

Brandon was SUPER excited about his Pro Mini Hoop. haha.

The Wests!

2010-12-02T21:55:00.001-08:00

We had a couple visitors over Thanksgiving. The Wests from Phoenix came and stayed with us! We loved it. We saw them when we got back from Vegas and got to hang out with them on Saturday.

They came to SD with a game plan, they had so many good ideas of what to do! We are glad we have visitors every so often because it gets us out doing fun things :)

While they were here, we ate out at Chili's to catch the BYU-Utah game, did a little shopping, went to the Del Mar fairgrounds for a holiday lights drive-thru, ate at a cute gelato shop, and went to National Comedy show downtown. National comedy is like Comedy Sports in Provo or Laughing Stock in Salt Lake. It was sooo funny! I am glad we went. I love good improv shows. Here are pictures:

Thanksgiving!

2010-12-02T21:15:00.000-08:00

We had a great little Thanksgiving break.

Wednesday, we drove after his test and my clinicals up to Vegas. It took about 2 hours longer than normal, so we were so happy to get there when we did. I think it had been the longest that I had ever been home, so it felt so nice to be back!

Thursday: Busy with the Foutz Thanksgiving day meal at a local church building. Got to see all of my awesome cousins and visit with grandma and grandpa and all of the aunts and uncles. There were only 5/10 of the Foutz siblings (my dad's siblings), but we still had over 30 people there, so it was good we were in a gym. Yummy food and company. We missed those that weren't there!

That night, we saw Hp7! Awesome. I am glad I read the books so I don't have to wait until SUMMER to see what happens next!

Decided that night to visit Old Navy at midnight (the $5 pjs lured us in), and we didn't leave there until about 3am. That little visit included an hour wait outside (and vegas CAN get cold), and then about a 2 hour wait inside for checkout! Who knew Old Navy was that popular?

Friday: Slept in. Finalized decorations for my Michelle's shower the next day, and did a little shopping (found cute black items for bridesmaid dresses for Lauren's wedding). And then we drove back home :(

I had to make it back to my Saturday lab. I think I have complained about this enough. But what school doesn't make the Saturday after thanksgiving part of the holiday? And what professor wouldn't override that rule? Well, SDSU and my nursing professor didn't. So I went back to school at 7am. haha. Well, now I am done complaining, and here are the pictures from the holiday:

Cute old men

2010-12-01T18:44:00.000-08:00

I just cried to Brandon about the cutest elderly couple I saw today at the hospital.

I had seen the man leaving the hospital last night and he was here again when I had clinicals this morning. He was sitting by his wife at her bedside all morning accompanying her. I am not sure if she was able to talk to him, but he was there the whole time with her, watching tv, holding her hand, and occasionally reading his book.

Mid-morning, I caught him in the hallway waiting outside while his wife had an x-ray done. I started a conversation with him just to see what he was like. He said that they had been married for 62 years-- married in 1948! He told me a little about them and I told him that I was impressed with him and that he is doing a great job of taking care of his wife. At that moment, he started chocking back the tears! So sad. I could not handle it, so I thanked him and had to move on. His love for that little old lady in the bed was so strong, and you could tell all that he wanted was to sit by her and comfort her.

So of course Brandon got to hear that story today, and I couldn't help but let out a few tears myself.

Man, how am I going to handle anything more emotional than that? Sweet old men just touch my heart :)

SDSU vs. Utah

2010-11-21T14:48:00.000-08:00

Went to a game on Saturday night!

The weather has been crazy this weekend. On hour sunny, the next hour, crazy rain. It so happens that cycle went on throughout last night. Half of the game it was raining hard and the other half, totally dry.

But it was an awesome game! Brandon really wanted SDSU to win so that BYU's rankings could be higher and if SDSU won, then BYU would have a better chance at a bowl game (did I say that right?).

Well, the Aztecs played like they were going to win, but Utah got lucky and won at the end.

The pictures are SUPER fuzzy. And we look a little tan. But we really aren't. And Brandon looks pretty intense.

Marriage!

2010-11-14T22:04:00.000-08:00

My sister is getting married! Her and Trent are a cute couple and are getting married on January 15th. We are so excited for them. You can read all about her and the engagement story on her blog.

www.lafoutz.blogspot.com

She is so wonderful and has always been a big role model for me. We are only 17 months apart and only one year apart in school-- so we have always been together. And now that I have moved away, she gets engaged! Good thing I approved. I look forward to getting to know Trent more, but from what I know of him, he is a great guy! And Lauren deserves the best.

Woohoo! Yay for wedding plans!

Klospe Carnival

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

This picture is of a man named William (he is on the far right with the stick in his hand). He is a man we met in South Africa this summer. He worked as a bellman (I think? if that is the right word) at the hotel in Cape Town. He was a very friendly man and so nice to be around. He was there every morning to see that our day got off nicely; always helping with our bags, serving as the security, and greeting us with a smile.

This picture is him at the Klopse Carnival in 1980, a little after the time that he was kicked out of his home in the famed District Six. If you do not know about District Six (I had never heard of it until I was there), it is really quite interesting because it is such recent history. Google it.

This man had to completely rebuild himself. He and his family were well established living in District 6 and lived comfortably. Once the government kicked everyone out, they were shipped to a place much further north; this meant that everyone had to move away from their homes, their jobs and live in a much more impoverished state. The land of district six was basically being remolded and was intended for white middle class to live there. But, since there was such an uproar and protest, this land still remains quite barren-- the plans for the beautiful new "white" areas never came to pass.

William now has a great job and is well respected in his profession. He said that his family is taken care of and is happy. It is amazing the racism that is still present and it is crazy to think of the cruel acts of racism that are still imprinted on many living people's memories.

Another example was on Robben Island (where the past president) was put into a political jail with many other prisioners. This island was meant for those that were opposing the government at the time. This island now serves as a museum for teaching. Past prisoners (mostly coloured or black) now live and work peacefully with past guards (mostly all white) on the island. These people lived through this horrible time up until the 1990s and now live to tell us their first hand account. Their once hated relationship has turned into forgiveness as they work for a better world to live in! It is pretty amazing that it is such recent history.

Anyway, I share this because I came across that print above (looks very yellow, but it is actually white), that William gave me. I want to display it somewhere to not forget their living remembrances and their amazing strength.

hmmmm where to put it, where to put it........

Pumpkin Bread

2010-11-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

This turned out so so yummy! I have a problem with loaves of anything and end up cooking them too little or too long, but this was perfect.

I put in a little less sugar and closed my eyes so tight when I poured it in. Don't worry about how much it is, we will be sharing it! haha.

We had an extra little takeout box, so I stuck it in there to take to our church picnic today!

GREAT HARVEST PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP BREAD

2 1/2 cups white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
3 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
16 oz cooked or canned pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
1 cup oil
4 eggs, beaten lightly
2/3 cup water
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease two (9x5 inch) loaf pans or three (8x4 inch) loaf pans.

Mix flours, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a large bowl; set aside.

Mix pumpkin, oil, eggs, and 2/3 cup water together and stir into dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Place batter in prepared pans.

Bake 60 or 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

from this website

POM

2010-11-04T12:16:00.000-07:00

Another plus of my family coming to visit is that they brought pomegranates from our tree at home! I love them because they remind me of grandma's old house where she had tons of pomegranate trees. I think that they are also special because I saw them selling for $3 each at Ralphs (our version of Smiths)! Crazy. I got them for free. Maybe Ill start selling them outside at a stand for $1 each. I would still make a ton!

They take so much work to get open and all the seeds separated, but once all that is done, it is just wonderful.

I think that this fruit makes it on my "top 5 things I could live off of the rest of my life". Others might include Tillamook cheddar cheese, homemade wheat bread, my mom's cream cheese dessert, and maybe grapefruit.

What are your five??? haha

Weekend Pictures

2010-11-03T12:16:00.001-07:00

This weekend, my family came to visit because they had school off for Nevada Day (best holiday ever-- school off for Halloween? Sweet).

Sooo we went to Disneyland, the beach, and celebrated my dad's birthday. Madeline and Isaac also came to our Sunbeam's class at church. haha. our little Sunbeams are hilarious, we wanted to share them with M and I.

Here are Disneyland pictures!

Mads driving the cars

Splash Mountain- Probably second favorite ride!

Look who I got to meet up with! It was so fun seeing Jessica there. We were pretty wet after the rapids

I love this picture of them. They were excited for the back seat of Thunder Mountain

These pictures are out of order, buuuutttt this is when we ran to Indiana when the park first opened. This couple made it before us because they were "skipping". The park workers keep you from running, but this couple both had long legs and were soaring with each skip. Pretty incredible.

We also celebrated my Dad's birthday at a Japanese restaurant and had a pumpkin roll for dessert (he really likes pumpkin)

Here are some pictures of celebrating my dad's birthday:

LOVE YOU DAD!

Random thoughts

2010-11-02T17:13:00.000-07:00

A few things from today:

I have a blast of a weekend with my family here. Pictures to follow. I love my family. And its my Dad's birthday today!

I did the impossible today: I stalled our stick-shift car ON THE FREEWAY! To make it worse, I was in the left lane and it was at 4:30pm during traffic. I pulled over, restarted the car, called Brandon for support, and after about a minute, found a gap I could squeeze into. Scary.

Today was our first day picking out patients for our hospital clinical tomorrow. We showed up in our professional clothes to the nurses station and find out the hospital is being inspected this week. We were kindly told to leave as no students are supposed to be there during inspection. Soooo, that takes about 22 hours of work out of my week! I was looking forward to going tomorrow, but turns out, we will have to do something else instead.

I have the cutest nieces and nephews.

More shots:

2010-10-28T21:12:00.000-07:00

Today, I volunteered at a campus flu clinic for an hour. I got to give 2 more shots! They were both men, so they had a little bit beefier arms.... so that helped a bit. Knew I wasn't going to hit any bone with them! I have only been in school for 8 weeks now, and they are letting us give shots! I like just jumping into things like this.

Yesterday was our first official hospital day. I am stationed down south and get to work right next to Mexico. Lucky me. I like Mexico, just not the border area of it. haha. This week, our professor picked our patients for us and we were to help with "Activities of Daily Living". ADLs = bed baths, helping to ambulate, taking vital signs and basically just talking with the patient and observing the RNs. My patient was so sweet and was very competent and took her own shower, so she didn't need me too much. I took her blood sugar and vitals and got to watch a few enemas on another patient (that was pretty interesting--TMI?). It was helpful to just be in the hospital environment.

Next week, we will pick our own patients and will get to distribute medications and write up their care plans. Should be a little more intense!

Here are a few pictures from when we had our "white coat ceremony" a few weeks ago.

As a side note: I texted Brandon the word "Sicknast" in a sentence today to describe something I thought was gross and he replied, "Did you really say sicknast? Hahahah. I am going to use that"

Don't be surprised if you hear Brandon using my new lingo.

French Onion Soup

2010-10-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

Hello there! Today I am making French Onion Soup. It has been about 2 1/2 hours so far, and I think I have another hour to go until it is done, but this is going sooo worth it! The aromas are already wonderful. We aren't going to eat it until this weekend, but I am making it ahead to save time and let the flavors soak in. I am using a mixture of 2 recipes:

Cookography
The Pioneer Woman

I don't have sherry or white wine, so I am deleting that and adding some more flavor (found at pioneer woman) to the cookography one.

Hopefully this works!

The caramelized onions:

I was crying as I chopped the onions, so Brandon looked up from studying and offered to help. He grabbed his goggles and they helped! No crying for him.

Called it.

2010-10-25T21:10:00.001-07:00

Tied.

Enough of monopoly Deal.

Well.....maybe one more game so I can win

Costco

2010-10-24T16:13:00.001-07:00

I enjoy making a trip to Costco every 2 weeks or so, but I always get the same things:

Romaine lettuce
Block of cheddar cheese
Lunch meat (turkey)
Bread
Bananas
Milk (sometimes-- we usually don't drink it that fast)
Butter and Eggs (when we run out)
and occasionally granola bars or snacks

I go to the other stores for produce and other groceries, but I have found that Costco has the best deal on these things here.

If you shop there, what do you think are the best things to buy at Costco? I need some suggestions....

Any free time has turned into a competition....

2010-10-24T16:09:00.000-07:00

Don't worry. I'll catch up.

Lettering

2010-10-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

I was at Michaels today when I came across these black metal letters! The original price was $1 per letter, which is all fine and great.... but they were 70% off! $0.30 each. Of course I had to look through the bin and see what I could spell out. So here it is! I want to find a way to secure them directly to the wall-- I tried the 3M adhesive strips, and that wasn't good enough. So right now, they are pinned up.

Now I need to find some curtains.......

Can I just say???

2010-10-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

Brandon is seriously awesome.

He had a test yesterday and today, yet he took time for me the past few days!

He did the dishes
Gave me a professional massage to practice for his massage class
and played Monopoly Deal with me on Sunday night!

I knew that this test was big, but he still took the time for me. AND he still has been doing great on his tests! Go Brandon.

Men and Women in the Church

2010-10-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have been listening to the Mormon Channel (lds radio) online while I am doing other things. I really liked this article and how it talks about equality in the home:

Mormon Identity: Men and Women in the Church

Visitors

2010-10-17T17:03:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we had some visitors again! I am beginning to think that people like to come out here because they like where we live, and not just to see us :) Either way, we will take whoever wants to make the drive!
Here are the cinnamon rolls we made for them-- it is my Aunt Joan's recipe. My cousins taught me how to make them a few years ago. Delicious.

Don't forget to add plenty of cinnamon and sugar!

The first night that they were here, we visited La Jolla cove, and were much more impressed with that than La Jolla shores. We watched the seals and overlooked the cliffs.
Lj and Kelsi, 2 of Brandon's sisters
All of us visiting the San Diego temple:

The crew drove up to Knott's Berry Farm on Friday and spent the day at the beach with us on Saturday. They came during some cloudy weather, but we still had fun. Thanks for making it down to see us Mike, Michelle, Tyler, LJ and Kelsi!

(And, I forgot to take my camera to the beach.... so these are the only pictures I have)

Weekend

2010-10-07T15:12:00.000-07:00

Had a wonderful weekend with some friends! Sea World, Pacific Beach, Body Boarding, Pizzeria in Coronado, and the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center.
Loved having them!

......

2010-10-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

I just signed up to give my FIRST SHOTS! It will be at a flu clinic for nursing students next Thursday! I don't know if I am more scared to give my shot or get a shot from a student. haha.

Finished decorations

2010-10-03T19:43:00.000-07:00

Here is my little fall banner in our kitchen! It matches the pumpkins and looks like we are having a party everyday (well, at least until Thanksgiving, then I will take it down). Don't mind that we have no curtains in our house.... :)

And, does anyone have a cute idea for hanging tags for the FHE board? We don't have any-- and although we only have two of us, we still need something to hang!