Family Picture

Waahoo!

As of this evening I finally have a job offer to work as a MA. June 20th I will start training. The position is full time at the Snohomish Walk-In Clinic. I am really excited, I loved WIC during my externship. It does require working every other Sunday, which I'm not excited about, but I think I'm okay about it. Waahoo!

Sink and Destroy

You Twilight fans out there will remember the part in New Moon right after Edward leaves where for like five or six pages, all that is written is the name of the current month. That is kind of how I feel lately, not the comatose depression, but the feeling that each month is completely unremarkable from the next. Anyone who follows my sister Julie's blog will get a picture (literally) of what the fun part of my summer entailed.

The month of august I think has been designed to make me wish summer was over and I was back in school. BTW I took a class this summer and did GREAT! I got an A!! We'll see how next quarter goes, it is the quarter before extern where you do the phlebotomy and medication administration (read lots of needles) and I have been really excited to learn about how to do all of that. The concern is that you have to have proof of immunity documentations in before the quarter starts or they drop you. My conflict exists because I couldn't get my third Hep B shot till 8/23, and then you are supposed to wait a month and get the titer (a blood test that proves you are immune). School starts 9/20, I think you can all see the problem here. I have sent an email explaining the situation and am hoping for mercy.

Back to wishing summer over; our house was painted four years ago, but it has been apparent for at least the last year that it would have to be repainted this year, or we would suffer the consequences. So after much deliberation over colors, we began the work of proper preparation before painting. First we power washed (one day), then we scrapped loose paint (about 4 days), then we filled holes, cracks and imperfections with wood fill-three kinds (9 days), then we started sanding the wood fill and discovered that the fill we had used for 2/3 of the house was like cement to sand- I strained my wrist for a week hand sanding one day. To make matters worse, we discovered after test priming a patch, that we really didn't like the look of the patched areas and have ultimately decided that we should have sanded most of the areas we filled. By this point my poor mom, who has borne the brunt of the fill/sand labor decided that we would buy two cheap orbital sanders to ease the labor. With their help we only sanded for about 3 1/2 days-completely burning out the motors on both sanders and moving to dad's nice sander in the end. So with all of that done we finally started priming yesterday. After 9 hours of both mom and I priming, we had completed about 2/3 of the house. Of course it is supposed to rain all day tomorrow and part of Tuesday, but dad plans to take Wednesday and Thursday (before the temple) off so we might actually get most of the house painted before they have to leave for Utah Thursday in order to help clean out Grandma and Grandpa's house.

I forgot to mention that part of the prep work for painting has included nailing down any siding that is loose. Sounds easy, right? Well the reason so many boards are loose is that it seems whoever put them up originally did so without regard for stud placement. Now even I can figure out that the boards will stay on the house much better if they are actually nailed to something other than more siding. But apparently there wasn't anyone as construction savvy as myself present when this job was done. As a result, watching Dad try to nail the boards went something like this: Pick a spot that should have a stud, nail, nail, nail-nothing. Pull it out, move over 1/2", nail, nail, nail-nothing. Pull it out, move over another 1/2", nail, nail, nail-nothing. You can see why after a short time I commented that it looked like he was playing "Battle Ship"- A12-miss, A10-miss, B11-hit! Never knew that Hasbro knew so much about building houses.

First day of school, here I come.

The Advantages of Being Poor and in School

So I still really have nothing big going on, work, school, church, school, work, etc. But I did recently file my tax return and because I am a) Poor, b) in school, and c) old, I not only get all my taxes back, but the government was also kind enough to give me an additional $1800. Not too shabby. It might make up for the fact that I can't work next quarter due to class being scheduled in the middle of my work shift. But now no more complaining, I have been well taken care of.

Wallace Falls

So for Memorial Day we went hiking to Wallace Falls. We took it pretty easy, stopped to take pictures of everything. It was great. I love hiking in WA, everything is so beautiful. I didn't want to go through all the pictures, did I mention Mom, Dad and I all had our camera's and took lots of pictures? But I thought I'd post one of Middle Falls. It is gorgeous.

And since I took one, how about a video of the Middle Falls too? FYI I am not a great camera person, even if I did work as a cameraperson for KBYU.

The End is in Sight...Sort of

So I have only 2 weeks left of this semester before finals start. I'm not super worried, one's a take home, one's online and one isn't comprehensive. That's the good news. The less exciting news is that I still have like 18 mos before I am totally done. I'll survive, all I can say is I better be able to find a job now!
On another exciting note, I started WeightWatchers like 8 weeks ago and I have lost 14 lbs so far. In practical terms that is the weight of a 3 month old, 3 sacks of sugar, or 14 boxes of butter. Just imagine those strapped to your waist and it gives me more motivation to keep going.
So, yeah, nothing earth shattering but I was feeling guilty for the lag between posts.

Nowhere near as clever as my sisters

So apparently my blogging rate is once every other month, which doesn't seem so bad but is not even as close as most people. I was telling my mom about facebook- many of her friends and even her aunt, yes that would be my great aunt, have now joined facebook and so i was explaining the difference between blogs and facebook- anyway i was saying that i like to use facebook just to see what everyone is up to, but i don't usually comment or post about myself. I paused and then added that i do the same with blogging. She laughed and told me i have the same philosophy with phones. So just to update everyone who doesn't already know, technology in my world exists to serve me when it's convenient and i have no problem ignoring it when it's not. this doesn't mean that i don't read or appreciate other's updates, in fact i love them, but i rarely update myself. i apologize for this but lets face it those who know and love me realize this will probably never change.

i actually have an update on my life adventure today. Monday i started a second job, i now work 15 hours a week at Starbright Early Learning Center, basically as an aid. I work with 2 1/2 year olds which are a challenge but have always been one of my favorite ages. Also on the 30th I start school again. I decided against Everest College that i talked about previously and have elected to attend Everett Community College for basically the same program. The disadvantage is that it will take a year and a half verses 8 mo, the advantage is that it is about half the cost. (Everest was $14,000, EvCC $8,000) To save my sanity-which can't survive a year and a half without a real job- i plan to certify in phlobotomy concurrently (it requires the same classes as Medical Assisting, with one extra internship type class). So i will finish phlobotomy in december and hopefully get a job while i continue to study for Medical Assisting. Oh, phlobotomy is drawing blood.

So I think everyone is offically updated on my life, weird I almost typed love life, which for me takes one word- "nada"- unless you want to get fancy and pretend you can hear crickets chirping...

So um, yeah, love you all!

Julie's Amazing

So I was just checking out Julie's blog and was shamed into posting. My title was Happy Thanksgiving and she has posted 7 times just since Lilly was born. My new big plan is to enroll in Everest College (it's in Everett near the mall) to be a Medical Assistant. For those of you who wonder what a MA is, well when you visit the dr the person who takes your temp, blood pressure, symptoms etc, is a MA. They can also take blood and do other dr office stuff. The program takes 8 mo and i'll start either tuesday (1-20) or feb 19th. So as excited as I'm not to go back to school, this degree is very marketable and could get me an actual job that makes actual money which would be a novel experience. Anyway, I'll try to keep you posted on the progress I make, but if you want to read a cute blog, visit Julie's, nothing's cuter than my niece and nephew.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So still not much here, still looking for a job (a real one) but I'm grateful for the part time job I do have. I am excited for the Holiday's, especially to see the nephews. Of course it goes without saying that I can't wait for Julie's baby to get here so I can go visit. Um that is really all for now, Nathan will be here Saturday so maybe I'll have some funny baby stories to post later. Love ya all!

Blah, Blah, Blah

So I don't really think I have anything to say, but I keep catching grief for having so long between posts, so for those of you who really want to read boring stuff, here it is. If you look up boring in the dictionary you would see a description of my life right now. I go to work (about 15 hours a week at the "Gymboree Outlet"-a baby store) and go to church and any ward activities I can fit in around work (I typically work 4:30-9:30, right during prime fun time). The rest of my time I spend with exciting things like, watching my mom prepare for seminary (she is really dedicated she spends like 6 hours a day!), laundry, cleaning or trying to convince myself that those things are more exciting than just taking a nap for a few hours. I did manage to make Nathan (my sister Jenny's baby) a sleeper, though at first it was just me and the instructions- not terribly instructive. By the time I offically decided that something was freakishly weird about it, i had sewn the legs together (like right leg to left leg together) and the zipper went from the neck to the ankle. Yeah, I put that on hold until my mom could look at it and tell me what the problem was-I couldn't tell! Luckily for my nephew-who is not a one leg mutant- it was totaly fixable and just required unpicking-lots of unpicking. But once I had the secret instructions to go with the written ones, it went together quite quickly and easily. I plan to make another to redeem the presentation of my sewing skills. In my defense the existance of unwritten instructions is very common for my mom. She uses recipes and patterns as a reminder of what she really does, kind of like a secret code. I should probably be greatful for that as it provided the only real entertainment of the last week.

Fairwell NY!

So by my last day I had seen almost everything on my must see list, except the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. As I read around though the Empire didn't have a better view than the Top of the Rockefeller, plus the Rock had MUCH shorter wait times. I decided (especially since it was the day after the fourth and I figured there would be lots of tourists) to see the skyline from the Top of the Rock. I went there first but the rain storm from the previous night (see last post) was still around and the guy at the entrance was telling people they could pay and go up, but the visibility was zero and they didn't give refunds. So I elected to head to Battery Park and the Statue of Liberty. After talking with lots of people I had decided to forgo the traditional ferry ride to Liberty Island and Ellis Island- it cost money, took a minimum of three hours and the best view of the Statue was from the Ferry anyway. By that week-with all the tourists, when I went to get tickets there were none that included the museum at the Statue anyway. So again on the advice of others I decided to catch the Staten Island Ferry from Battery Park. This is a free ferry that runs every half hour and goes right by the Statue. I got my tons of pictures and then on Staten Island rushed around to catch the same ferry going back. It worked out great, I got all the pictures I wanted and only spent an hour. I had a list of shopping that I wouldn't go home without- knock off sunglasses, purses for me, Jenny and Steph (mom and Jules declined but after seeing ours wished they had put in an order :), a charm for my bracelet and any cute clothes that I couldn't pass up. So I went to Chinatown and bargained some great deals on two Gucci purses. Then I shopped my way back uptown and by that point there was a brief clearing in the weather so I decided to go to the Rock and see the skyline. It was cloudy, but Hello! From Washington! cloudy is no big deal to me. I got some fun pictures and completed the last thing on my list. There’s still lots of things in NYC that I would love to go back and do again, do better, or do at all (lol) but for the time I had I feel that I was able to see and do everything I really wanted. Going to NYC was a great experience for me and I am grateful for the opportunity and all the many things I learned while I was there. To all the amazing friends I made out their, I love you and thanks for your great friendship. While I am no longer in NY and so the address of my blog is no longer accurate, I’ve decided I don’t care and will continue to use this blog as a way to keep friends and family updated on my life.Statue of Liberty Mimes in Battery Park
Ground Zero
Staten Island Ferry
Statue of Liberty
Me with Statue of Liberty
Central Park as seen from the Top of the Rock
Empire State Building-notice the colors for 4th of July
Chrysler Building behind MetLife Bldg
Fabulous view, even with poor visibility

Fourth of July

So the Fourth of July was my next to last day in the City. I went with my friends Kayla and Rachel. we spent part of the morning trying to find where a concert we heard about would be playing. We walked from Grand Central up to Times Square, then to the Rockefeller Center, and then all the way down to about 10th street and FDR drive, that is a lot of walking. We never did find the concert but we had fun seeing the city. We found a place on FDR to watch the fireworks (the city blocked off the road for the evening) and started to wait. It ended up raining off and on, then pouring but at that point we were already soaked so a little more didn't matter. Despite the rain there were tons of people-duh, NY! The display was frankly not the best I've ever seen,- though they did have some cool shapes, but the point was the experience, which I've now had. It was lots of fun just being with my friends.


Me and Rach



Three of the launch barges
Smiley Faces
Cubes

Central Park

So I have tons to catch up on! My time in NY was ended sooner than expected and so I had six months of stuff to do in like 3 weeks!
I made it to Central Park and saw lots of cool stuff. I walked up 5th avenue on the way and drooled into Tiffany's. Before Central Park I went to Hell's Kitchen to browse at the flea market that they have there. After all that walking I was so tired and had huge blisters and did I mention it poured a few times. I'd get soaked then dry out, then it would rain again and I was soaked. I had mud splashed all the way up the back of my legs and (white) skirt. In short, I was tired. So I decided that was the perfect opportunity to take my first taxi ride. That was the best decision I ever made! Anyway it was a great day in the city and I made it home to recover and go back the next day.

Violining Indian


Balto the Sled dog


5th Avenue

Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend I had some good fun. Saturday I was window shopping and passed a bookstore that was having a book signing by Gail Carson Levine! For those of you who are culturally lacking, she is the author of a number of great books, the most famous of which is Ella Enchanted. Anyway I really like her so that was a great surprise, she did a little interview for about 45 minutes before and answered a bunch of questions. It was lots of fun. On Monday some friends and I went into the city for dinner. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square, it was a really neat experience. The last picture is of the Empire State Building with red, white, and blue lights for the holiday (the building is decorated with colored lights for like every holiday, especially the obscure ones).

Cute boy

The best part about the trip was seeing my family, especially my gorgeous nephew Josh (Julie's little boy). In these pictures he is almost 11 mo and not very happy about being stuck in his car seat-again! The trip from Idaho Falls to Ephraim might not take 18 hours, but it is way to long for him, especially with all the traveling around the state we did in Utah. Poor guy, I started with a smiling picture to show his real nature, then the grumpy ones, personally his mom has given me that same expression many times :)

Trip to Utah

Sorry it's been so long, but I lost my camera cord! So here is a bunch of stuff.

It was my Grandma Adams 80th birthday so the family had a big party for her. Of course I had to go out and participate. The whole trip out from my house to my uncles in Salt Lake took 18 hours-ridiculous, I know but that's what you get for flying cheap and refusing to spend extra money on taxi's and stuff. So while I had some time to kill I took some pictures of the entrance to Grand Central Station, the Chrysler building, the New York Library (me take a picture of a library, weird, I know), and some weird but cool looking building that was black and gold.

Fun in the City

Well I've now been into the City several times and have some fun pictures, so here is a couple of the best, to see more check out my facebook album-it's lots easier to load pictures!

Valentine's Day Fun

So for someone who loves flowers as much as I do, this Valentine's was the best ever! First Celeste (my employer) brought home a dozen peach roses and some fabulous handmade chocolates for me. Then my sister Julie sent me a gorgeous arrangement from her, Robert and Josh. It was so fun! I just love to see all the variety of beauty that Heavenly Father created and I am so glad that I get to enjoy them.

My wild visitors

I thought it was really cool that they came this close to the house. In the one picture you can see they're like a couple feet from the porch.