Back to School

It's official, I'm a student once again. I really can't believe it! When I graduated from ASU with my BSN I told myself I'd never go back to school because getting my degree was quite stressful and exhausting. But after nearly a three year break I guess I've found new energy because here I am, back in school! I started on Tuesday, I'm in an online program through the University of Phoenix for a general Master's of Science in Nursing. I decided this was a good time to start because I feel quite settled in my job now, and my work reimburses tuition 100%. Isn't that great!! I've never taken online classes before, not sure if I even like them. I'm finding it's a LOT of reading and writing, probably not the best learning syle for me because I'm a slow reader and I hate to write, and I don't like sitting in front of a computer all day. But classes are only 6 weeks long and if I want to take a break between classes, I can! And I can "go to class" whenever I want. Works great with my work schedule. So, here's to furthering my education!!

Road Trips

One of the things Josh and I planned to do when we moved to Chicago is explore this part of the country. It's so different from the southwest! So many trees! So far I've been to a few places around central Illinois, St. Louis, Wisconsin, northwestern Indiana, and a few weeks ago I took a trip over to Indianapolis with some girls in the ward for the "Time Out For Women" conference hosted by Deseret Book. It was great and uplifting, and the host Hilary Weeks provided wonderful vocal music as well. Indianapolis was a nice city, much much smaller than I had pictured. People seemed friendly, and they sure do love their football team! Josh might apply to a residency program in Indianapolis, so who knows, I might end up living there. These are the 8 girls who went on the road trip.

Then, last week Josh had a break from school so we took a nice road trip to Niagara Falls! We heard from someone it was a must-do, and that we should drive there through Canada and back through the U.S. so that's exactly what we did Sept. 14-19. I'm going to give a day-by-day run down, so prepare for a long post and lots of pictures!

Friday: Josh took his first shelf exam in the morning (the tests they have to take after each hospital rotation) then off we went! We decided to split the drive in two different days, so we drove through Indiana up to Michigan where we camped at Waterloo State Recreation Area. Josh had been itching to go camping all summer, and this was the perfect place! It was beautiful, not too crowded, and we were right by a lake. It was even kinda cold out. We set up camp then had plenty of time to check stuff out, hiked around a little, made some tasty foil dinners, then watched a movie on the laptop in our tent.

Saturday: In the morning the "camp host" had hot chocolate and donuts for everyone, perfect for the cold morning, then we went on a longer hike. Josh saw a couple deer, but they were too fast and I missed them. When we got back we packed up and made our way through Detroit to Canada. It was both mine and Josh's first time to canada.

We drove for 4 hours to Niagara Falls, and shortly before we got there my odometer read this:

123456!! (I know you can't really see the 4.)

Ok, I know I'm a nerd for posting this, but I thought it was so cool that I noticed it and just had to take a picture. Lots of miles on our little corolla, but it's still running great! We finally got to Niagara Falls and stayed in a brand new hotel with a jacuzzi tub! It was awesome.

For dinner we went to Planet Hollywood, then walked around. We were quite surprised how touristy Niagara Falls was, it was almost like a mini Las Vegas! Not really our style, but fun to walk around, for a short time.

Sunday: For Sunday we hopped back over to to the U.S. and visited Palmyra, NY, less than 2 hours from Niagara. It was so neat to visit there and to sit in the Sacred Grove and feel the spirit that abides there. We also saw the restored homes Joseph Smith and his families lived in, the bedroom where the Angel Moroni appeared to Joseph, the Hill Cummorah, and the temple. The Smith farm sat on 100 acres, and the temple was built on the Smith farm property. It looks out onto the Sacred Grove. It was the perfect way to spend our Sunday.

Sunday Evening, back in Niagara Falls, we walked along the falls at sunset. It was beautiful. There are two waterfalls: American Falls (the straight one) and Horseshoe falls (the curved one) also known as the Canadian Falls.

Monday: In the morning we went on the Maid of the Mist for an up-front close and personal encounter with the falls! This boat tour takes you up as close as it can safely get to horseshoe falls. It is awesome because you get soaked by all the mist and it's SO loud from the thundering water. There's also always a rainbow. We all were even given classy blue ponchos to help protect us from the water, but I think everyone still manages to get wet.

In the afternoon we found an AWESOME place to hike around, it was right along the Niagara River just downstream from the falls. It was so beautiful, lots of trees and rocks, and huge boulders that had fallen from the cliffs, perfect condition for hiking. (We're kinda tired of the flatlands of the midwest and love to see rocks and boulders on occassion.) We hiked along to a spot on the river called the "whirlpool" because it's right at a sharp turn in the river so all the water there churns around like a whirlpool. The weather was incredibly PERFECT this day too, I couldn't help but be so happy the whole time because it was the perfect way to spend the day!

Tuesday: Tuesday we said goodbye to Niagara Falls and Canada, and started to make our way back home. Again we wanted to split the driving into two days and we first drove to Kirtland, OH to see more church history sites. We went on a tour of Historic Kirtland and of the Kirtland Temple. It was all so beautiful, and again it was such a neat experience to stand in places were so many sacred and spiritual events took place.

Wednesday: After staying the night in some tiny trucker town somewhere in Ohio, we drove the rest of the way back to Chicago. But before we made it to Chicago we visited the Amish Country of northern Indiana, we were in the town of Shipshewana. It was so fun to see the Amish riding in their carriages along the roads and to see their clothes drying out on clotheslines. It was very surprising to me though to see them living in a town right alongside the non-Amish people. I always thought they lived in their own separate communities. Goes to show how little I know. All the Amish people we saw were all so very nice and friendly. Josh likes their throat beards. We went to a huge flea market there so there were lots of Amish around. We bought a homemade pumpkin pie from them that was so so yummy! I would have loved to buy one of their handmade quilts, but they're quite pricey.

There aren't too many places where you'll see this sign!

So after six days of fun, 20 hours of driving, 304 pictures, endless Canadian jokes (sorry Canadians, we do love Canada), lasting memories, and priceless moments together, we finally made it home. It was such a fun trip, and we can't wait until our next road trip!!

Dental Update

Earlier I wrote a post about the "fun" dental work I get to go through. Well, I thought I'd give a little update since I went to the dentist this week, and since I'm sure everyone is just DYING to know and because you know my teeth are so interesting. right. So I actually had to see a periodontist on Monday. I'm getting an old crown replaced and my dentist told me that the tooth is too close to the bone to actually replace it, so what I might need to have is a "crown lengthening" done. In lay-man terms that means cutting down the gums and shaving down bone. Can you say OUCHIEE!! My periodontist confirmed that I do indeed need it, and I guess it's really not too bad (so I've heard). We'll see. But it's "surgery" and I'll have to have stitches in my mouth. The last time I had stitches in my mouth, from my wisdom teeth removal, I accidentally swallowed them. I am still waiting to get my new fillings, and I've decided not to change my old "silver" fillings to "white" ones after research and consultation with my trusted resources :). My dentist still wants to do some work on other teeth, but I think I will wait because it would cost me a pretty penny. Hopefully my teeth won't fall out now! Well, sorry that you had to read this boring post.

the love of my life

I've realized I haven't put many pictures of my dear hubby on here! I think he is just the greatest person ever because he is so smart and funny and kind and loving and hard working. I couldn't ask for a better husband! I tried to find some pictures of him, and I just love these three pictures!

I love it when I see him out in nature, climbing rocks and trees like a little kid. He loves anything in the outdoors. It makes him so happy.

I always love seeing him dressed up in a suit. What guy doesn't look good in a suit!?

In this picture Josh helping a lady in Nicaragua. It's her own home they are sitting in. I love it when I see him helping and serving others. Josh is going to be such a great doctor!!

Ok, I stole this survey from Brynn:

1. Where did you meet your husband?
We were in the same institute class at ASU, my second semester there.

2. What was the first thing you said to your husband?
I probably said "hi," I don't remember. I started talking to him about the trip to Europe he was planning. I wanted to go, and I did!

3. Where was your first date?
Josh took me to Golfland and we played air hockey in the castle. Then we went to Neilsen's Frozen Custard for yummy concretes. I guess he hadn't planned a real "date," he just wanted to "hang out" he had said (even though he payed for everything) so he didn't really have anything else planned after that. So we spent the rest of the evening just driving around Mesa and Tempe and we talked. Romantic huh.

4. Where was your first kiss?
Outside my house by his car after our second date. Kind of a funny story....we had been talking for a while about our upcoming trip to Europe and where our relationship was going. I guess my mom wanted to give me a *hint* that it was time to come inside, so as he was getting ready kiss me my mom sends our little terrier/chihuahua dog Buster running and barking out to us (she wasn't spying she swears, it just happened to be at the same moment!). I ended up picking him up and then Josh kissed me as I was holding our dog. I was embarrassed at the time, we laugh about it all the time now!

5. Did you have a long or short engagement?
Short. We got engaged the day after Thanksgiving 2001, were married March 12, 2002.

6. Where did you get engaged?
Outside the Mesa temple. Josh had taken me on a picnic the day after Thanksgiving, then he blindfolded me and drove me to the temple. I knew he was going to propose, I just had no idea where he was taking me. I was happy when he took the blindfold off and I saw where we were. And he did get down on one knee to ask me. :)

7. Where were you married?
At the Mesa, AZ temple.

8. How did the reception go?
It was fine, minus a few minor mishaps, like the lady with the decorations showing up hours and hours late and setting things up as we were taking pictures, and the lights accidentally going out, but that was fixed. It was in someone's nice backyard so it turned out pretty.

9. How was the honeymoon?
We just went to Tucson for a few nights since we got married in the middle of the semester and didn't really have time or money to go anywhere big (lame I know). Then a year later we were able to go on a nice trip to Orlando and a cruise to the Bahamas!

New Set of Wheels

Today I became the proud owner of a bike! I haven't owned a bike since the 6th grade, I believe. In elementary school I rode my cool pink and teal bike everywhere. I was so proud of my ability to ride hands-free, turning corners and everything. In Jr. High and High School it became "uncool" to ride a bike. Even in college I chose to walk the long distances across the ASU campus in the scorching heat rather than riding a bike. I didn't even have a Razor when those were the hot trend. But now that I am more grown up and live in a big city where it's great to ride a bike, I decided it was time to get one. I had been browsing around for a while, I wanted a used bike that was still in good condition. I found this bike on Craigslist for a mere $50! (If you don't know craigslist, it's great! Online classifieds for all major cities, you can find pretty much anything you want. craigslist.org) It's not a fancy bike or anything, but it's clean, rides well, and it'll get me to where I want to go. I work only a mile away from where I live and most of the time I've been driving to work, can you believe it! I'm either just too lazy or running too late to walk. Now I'll be able to save a little gas $$. I also am looking forward to many nice bikerides along the lakefront, at least until it gets too cold out!

Say Goodbye!

I finally get to say goodbye to my glasses and once again reunite with my contacts! Three months ago I went for a routine eye exam and I was told I had a pannus- meaning a growth of blood vessels (not to be confused with a different definition, a large flap of fat that hangs over the belly) in my left cornea. This is bad. Blood vessels are not supposed to be in the cornea. They only got there because I wore my contacts for WaY too many hours a day and for WaY too many days in a row, thus depriving my cornea of precious oxygen. The only way for the blood vessels to go away was to stop wearing contacts for a while so that oxygen could flow freely to my cornea. So today my optometrist said my cornea was pannus-free! I thought I might have to switch to using hard contacts (ouch!) because I was told they might be the best option, but I was pleased to hear I could still wear soft contacts! Yay! Even though I kinda got used to wearing my glasses, I still don't like to wear them every day because mine aren't that cute, they have coke-bottle lenses (my eyes are pretty bad), I don't like to exercise with them, they get dirty so fast, and they move around my nose and make my nose sweaty! So to prevent a sweaty nose in my future, right now at this moment I am taking a vow to take very good care of my eyes, and I also take a vow to get LASIK someday (soon I hope)!!

I finally finished it

It's nearly midnight and I have to wake up really early for work so I really shouldn't be posting a blog right now, but Josh is on-call tonight and I seem to stay up late when Josh is on-call. So the best thing to do would be mindlessly browse and post blogs, right? :) In an earlier post I mentioned how I started making an apron, well it's finally finished! I think it's rather cute. It's reversable, but I think I like the striped side best.
Ok, now off to bed!

Girl's Camp

Last week I was lucky enough to go to girls camp with our stake! I always loved giong to girls camp as a youth, and I found it's pretty fun to go as a leader as well! I went as the camp nurse (which I did last year too), but there was a shortage of leaders so I did double duty and was a 4th year leader also. There were only two 4th years who came this year (yes, our stake is quite small compared to the huge stakes in Mesa) so it was a piece of cake. And our stake here is different than mine growing up in that the 4th years don't camp away from the main camp, and they don't even do an overnighter under the stars! They get it so easy here! But then it's easy for me too, so no complaints. We managed to make it through the week without any major health crises, which was also a good thing. It only rained a little, and everyone seemed happy overall, despite the 3rd years who woke the camp director up in the middle of the night because they thought they saw a tiger-- which turned out to be just a small, white domesticated cat who belonged to the camp owners. The thing that made camp greatest for me was staying in the health lodge. This means that I was the only one who got to sleep with air conditioning! I did feel a bit guilty the first night, but when I realized everyone else had to endure sleeping in a puddle of sweat from the yucky icky humidity, I didn't feel so guilty!

The coveted health lodge, notice AC unit to the left. :)

My two lovely 4th year girls, Abby and Laura

We got to climb an awesome rock wall!

Skit night

You can't really see it well in this picture, but their shirts have the camp theme. It was B.O.O.T. camp: Bringing Out Our Total selves physically, mentally, spiritually.

2 Year Anniversary!

I should have written this yesterday but I forgot to. Yesterday was our 2 year anniversary from the day we arrived in Chicago!! It took us 3 days to travel the 30 hour drive from Mesa, AZ. I can hardly believe it's been 2 years, time has really gone by fast. We love our little apartment and it's location, we love our Neighborhood Hyde Park, we love the ward we're in, we love living by lake Michigan, we love the greenery and all the trees, we love downtown, we love the food, and we love the people here!

I've been thinking about how much our life has changed since living in Chicago, in big and small ways. I thought I'd make a list of things I experience in Chicago that I didn't Arizona.

1. I use window AC units instead of central air (I'd love to have central air again!)

2. I parallel park on the street everyday, and I've gotten pretty good at it!

3. We don't have a doorbell to our apartment, we have a buzzer and I get to talk to people from our apartment and buzz them up.

4. I walk on really squeaky wood floors in our apartment. I've learned where they squeak the most and try to avoid those spots.

5. I can walk to my dentist or my eye doctor in about 5 minutes.

6. I can walk to work if I want.

7. I can walk to the grocery/produce/drug store as well as several restaurants.

8. I walk to church (our building here is actually closer than buildings I went to in Mesa!)

9. I ride the bus.

10. I own a snow shovel and actually use it.

11. I find myself saying 90 degrees is hot!

12. I own more long sleeve shirts/sweaters/jackets than short sleeve shirts.

13. I wear long sleeve shirts in the summer time on occasion.

14. I use an umbrella.

15. I cook on a gas stove and have to manually light our oven.

16. I've learned what the terms "houseshoes," "housecoat," "washroom," "hafta use it," and "babydaddy" mean.

That's all I can think of for now.

Getting crafty

I have this whole "craft corner" in my apartment that doesn't get used all that often. So today I decided to make some more use of it! I conveniently position it towards the TV so I can multitask and watch my favorite shows or any Netflix movies we might have. :)

This past year I went to a card club once a month hosted by a friend in the ward. Everyone who went would make enough cards to give to everyone else (we always had a theme of some sort) then we'd trade our cards (and rave about everyone's talents and abilities). Then we'd also make 2 new cards using techniques we learned that night. It was quite fun! I'd come home with such a variety of cards. Since I've developed quite a collection I haven't had to buy a card from the store in quite some time!Card club takes a break during the summer though because most of the members move somewhere else for the summer due to internships, etc. Since it's been a while since I've made any new cards, I decided to make some today on my own. I think they turned out pretty cute! :)

While I was on a roll with the craftiness, I decided to start making an apron. A friend made one and said it was pretty easy so she let me borrow her pattern. I've wanted a new apron, so I thought "what the heck." I really don't know how to sew very well though and I've never made anything from a pattern, so I hope it turns out ok. It's still in the works. But today I went to Joann's and spent forever trying to pick out cute fabric that would work. It's reversable so I had to find two different but matching fabrics. I finally found some and got to work on it. So far I've just cut out some of the pieces. I'll have to post the final product when I'm finished!
Also, I've been dog sitting for a neighbor/friend so I've gotten to play with this guy all day.

His name is Deebo, he's a Beagle/Basset Hound mix. He's so cute and a real good dog. It's also been fun to have someone else to talk to and play with while Josh is gone. :) It's hard to have a dog in an apartment though. I would need a yard before we got a dog. But when we do get a dog, I want a Beagle, they are definitely the cutest!!