Independence weekend

So I've been having a pretty good July so far. We started out by spending last weekend at Eric's aunt's cabin in Island Park, ID. We spent ALL DAY Friday "rafting" the river (2 inches deep in places!) and Eric came back looking like a lobster. I wish I didn't forget my camera or I'd have some really good pictures of his belly. I also didn't use sunscreen and my shoulders look like a leper now!

On Saturday we went to Yellowstone and saw the many wonders of nature. Its really cool, don't get me wrong when I say that its only something that needs to done once every, oh 20 years or so! Again, no pictures because I forgot my camera. :(

On the fourth of July we started the day off at Meadowbrook Golf Course where Eric, me and my parents shared a lively game. It was so lively that I hit a 9 on a par 3. Let's just say, I think I got the most out of the game! Then we had a barbecue at my parents house where we enjoyed horseshoes, American Flag cake, hula hoops, a swinging contest and fireworks, of course. Isn't life in America awesome?

Tay loved the fireworks but thought they were a little loud! "Happy Birthday America!"

Working woman!

So I've been working as a hygienist since June 15th. My very first day was as a temp in Old Farm Dental. It was pretty dang crazy and I didn't stay on time. I was about 10 - 15 minutes behind all day! It was a really small office but everyone seemed friendly and it was a nice office. Then the following Monday I started my part-time job at Dr. Smith's office in Murray. Now I was dreading my first day because somehow the schedule got out of control and I had like 13 patients that day (3 kids, at least). But normally I have an assistant and so I had that thought to comfort me. So I get there Monday morning and Dr. Smith says to me, "Melissa isn't going to be here because she has conjunctivitis." I almost started laughing because I thought it was a really good prank. Well, this was no prank and I was alone in hygiene with 13 patients. I believe I went into a state of shock because otherwise I would have been sobbing under the table or maybe even catatonic. But I just went at it. And the day did end (35 minutes later than scheduled) and the dental assistants were nice enough to check in on me, run some xrays and handled one particular devil child. And the best news of all is that everyone was really nice to me and Dr. Smith let me keep my job!

Nauvoo, you never know what you're going to experience

This is my last post of our Nauvoo trip so this should sum it all up. Here is the temple again, absolutely stunning. I just can't believe its there!
Eric and I at the gravesite of Joseph, Hyrum and Emma.
The mansion house where Joseph would have said his goodbyes to Emma. This was actually a hotel also.
Eric finding the name of his ancestor. You can tell from the photo how excited he is. Actually I think he was just mad that I made him point at the name on the page.
And the last picture really does sum up Nauvoo- you just never know what you're going to experience so just buckle up and enjoy the ride. Especially if you can enjoy it in "The Jester".

Green plains and Whitney

So we drove to Green Plains and got to see a commemorative plaque that is actually in memory of my great-great-great-great grandpa William Warren Taylor who died here before his family came to SL. He was buried about 300 feet from where this plaque was.


And then as we returned home, tired and hungry at least we had a pretty Nauvoo sunset to enjoy. This is the view from the house we stayed in over the Mississippi River. Pretty cool!
The next day we went on a wagon ride throughout old Nauvoo. I learned a valuable lesson on this wagon ride. Whitney says to me, "hey Jenny can I use your camera to take pictures of things?" Upon the return of my camera I learned that by "things" she meant about 20 pictures of herself among some other interesting snapshots. Here are a select few.
Yep, she really enjoyed taking pictures of strangers.
Some more of herself....
Oh and a few of Evan. It's funny she didn't take any of Taylor though.
Grandma's purse. Perhaps one of the greatest things to children on Earth.

Awww! Just look at that face. Just cute enough to keep me from strangling her!

Carthage Jail

Carthage Jail was one of my favorite experiences in Nauvoo. Of course it is so sad and everyone cries, I am sure. But wow, I don't think I will ever forget that. When I actually walked up to the window and looked down, it was just one of those moments that became imprinted on my mind forever. But before we went into the home, Eric and I posed in front of Joseph and Hyrum.This is a picture of two of the actual bullet holes in the original door. Unbelievable!
Whitney was always willing to pose for me, such a natural! I was really surprised to learn that the jail wasn't really so much of a jail as just a home that an entire family lived in with a small dungeon-like jail cell upstairs. However, the room where the martyrdom took place wasn't in the jail, it was in the homeowners' very own bedroom.
Whit took this picture of her family. I just noticed Tay's face in this! That is hilarious, he is such a devil.

Nauvoo Temple Night

So the first night we got to Nauvoo we decided to go see the temple at night. Let me tell you that was a really fun thing to do. The temple at night looks a little bit like its on fire in the pictures but in person it just looks beautiful. This temple is the most beautiful temple on the inside in my opinion too. It was so surreal to do a session in there. I just kept thinking about how there must be so many spirits everywhere in there. It was such a cool feeling.
Eric didn't know that you couldn't feed these horses. These statues are of Joseph and Hyrum as a commemoration of when they left to Carthage jail and they looked up at the temple and said something like they'd never known a more beautiful place with a better people... that is not word for word but it is written on the plaque.
Eric sat down at the gates of the temple to take a picture from a different angle but I just thought he looked like a homeless man (with a pepsi).
As we walked around the temple grounds it was so quiet you couldn't hear a thing except for the soft buzzing of the lights. It really was a very special experience, outside of the little bit of irreverence Eric and I provided. I am so thankful to have been there.

Minnesota

Thanks a bunch to Rob & Mandy for hosting our awesome trip to Minnesota & Nauvoo. The first full day in Minnesota was filled with adventure. We started out at the Mall of America where Aaron & Eric really enjoyed spending their time in Victoria's Secret. Hey, they were having a really good sale and I just couldn't miss out on 40% off. Then, that evening we went to a Twins game and had really good seats. We were on about the 6th row back the only downside was that we were sitting in front of some really loud Canadians that were cheering for the Blue Jays and people kept throwing things at them, only they kept hitting the people around them, namely Whitney and my dad! And then the Twins lost after a 13-inning game. But that doesn't keep us from having a good time.This is Evan just amazed at the bright lights! He is so cute!

Eric carting around after the game Whitney. This happened a lot on the trip. Mostly because Whitney would ask for me to carry her and then I'd get tired and Eric would take over. He's my knight in shining sweatsuits! This was so cute, we went home and watched the Jazz game and as you can see, the couch was full with Eric, my dad, and Aaron but Evan climbed up and decided he would squeeze himself in there too!

Minnesota was a really great place and I really loved it. I just kept reminding myself that I don't want to move there because of the FREEZING cold winters. But really, it was gorgeous, green, and full of lakes. We ate a really good place at Lake Calhoun called the Tin Fish. The drive there was so pretty and I just stared out the window coveting all the lakeside home owners. But then I would remember the winters are sooo cold!

Birthdays and Kites

Just to show how exciting life has been this spring now that school no longer takes up my whole life, I now have time to do really fun things like fly kites. This Sunday was perfect kite flying weather so Eric, Kent and I headed out to the park by their house. Eric's kite is a jet and Kent's is a box kite. Kent's kite was better to fly but it kept breaking. That is, until the engineers put their heads together and made some duct tape modifications. You can see from the pictures though that in the beginning Kent was very dejected about not getting his kite into a successful flight. However, once we got it into the air, it flew for about 5 minutes before we had to pull it in for "game" time. Go JAZZ!!

Just a few weeks ago we celebrated my dad's 52nd birthday! Way to go dad!

And I am so proud of my nephew and my husband for learning how to mimic one another. I'm really not sure who did the face first but they're both special in my eyes.

Corinne brought her bike to grandma's house to show us all how she'd learned to ride it without training wheels. So we all ran out in the freezing rain to watch her ride.

I passed!!

95 on my clinical exam. I think I missed 5 points on recession but who cares because I passed and I am going to DOPL on Monday to get my license!! About one more week and I will be an official RDH.

Pictures

Okay so I got these pictures to upload and then my internet connection got lost so I couldn't upload anymore but here's a few good pictures!

We did it!

Today is one of the greatest days of my life because I graduated from the Dental Hygiene program! Wahoo! That is not to say I won't miss the professors & my friends in the program but hopefully we will all still be able to keep in touch. I plan on blogging as long as people keep in touch! Anyway, I am trying to put some pictures on but its not letting me right now so I will try later. I have a bunch of pictures from the banquet, a barbecue at Aimee's, and graduation.

Just one more day...

Here's a fun story for you... Today I was trying to get my board patient in to take so xrays when her phone number wasn't working. So I tried to call her again, and again. But it didn't work. So I looked up her address in her chart and during lunch Erica and I drove to her house and we got her to come in for xrays this afternoon! Yipee! So now after all that stress I feel like I definitely need to call her and arrange for me to be her personal chaparone for boards.

Today I had a pretty good day considering it went nothing like how I had planned. In the morning I was going to take xrays on my board pt. and in the afternoon I was going to see Ashley's class 3 pt. I ended up finishing Ashley's class 3 pt. in the morning and taking xrays on my board pt. in the afternoon while simultaneously cleaning a 1A patient of Ashley's. It ended up being a pretty crazy day!

Gettin' down to the wire

Two more weeks to go! I have some mixed emotions about being at this point in school. First, I am SO over with this stuff and ready to move on to the real world and get a paycheck. On the other hand, I am really going to miss seeing everybody and carpooling with Des and Jalene. The past two years really have just flown by and it is a little unbelievable that we are almost finished. On the other hand, I am really grateful that we still have two more weeks left because I still need about 6 anesthesia experiences, 4 quads of a class 4 pt. and some major PE's. I am seriously praying that I can get it all done... I HAVE to get it all done. Today I took xrays on a patient that needed a physician consult and it looks like I can probably get at least 2 quads of a class 4 out of him. He's coming back on the last day of clinic so at least I can count on that! Well, what else can I say besides... see ya!

2 cents: The National Dental Hygiene Board Exam

Today is a very good day because it is the day after National Boards!!! This means I am sitting at the VA without a patient and I'm not spending my every free moment anxiously studying. No more quizzing each other, no more andyrdh or amyrdh, no more late nights at Jalene's, no more fighting over anesthesia math problems and no more worrying and stressing over it! And if the ADA wants my honest opinion of that exam, it is crap! I mean, it seemed to me more like torture after the first 100 questions or so. It is completely unneccesary to give a 7.5 hour exam. I got to a point where my eyes were so sore, I had a headache the size of Texas and I was ready to scream andI still had like 7 more case studies. And when a person gets to that point, you can't expect that they will be able to perform as they should on a rigorous exam. Thus, I strongly believe that the National Dental Hygiene Board Exam is completely unethical due to its grueling demand on my mental and physical health. But that's just my 2 cents, for what its worth.

Maui Pictures Finally

So here are some of my favorite memories of Maui (at least the ones I can show! ;)

This picture cost us $6 because some "professional" photographer pilfered it out of us. But the bird sure are a nice touch!



















Whale watching was really nice too. We just went out in a little raft kind of boat for about 2 hours and some of the whales came really close to us.... like this one. An interesting fact about humpback whales is that every whale has different fin markings, they're like fingerprints!
















This is a black sand beach with some ferocious waves. It is amazing to see such contrasts on one small island. One hour we are on a sunny beach with calm, if any waves, the next we are witnessing a furious ocean in a totally different environment. Did you know that Maui is home to one of the driest and wettest places on earth simultaneously?!















Here we are on our big night out. We dined at an ocean-view table (too bad you can't see it since its dark) but it was paradise... Although, Eric did get food poisoning from the clam chowder.





















This is a funny picture of us. We went up to the dormant volcano that is believed to have formed Maui. It was a 10,000+ ft mountain that we took a tour drive up the mountain and then biked our way down. I thought it was very nice and the volcano was pretty cool to see. When you go to a volcano crater you expect to see this perfect circle with molten lava inside but this crater was over 7 miles wide and you couldn't even see most of it from the lookout point.
















I just had to include this one as our classic beach photo. We rented some boogey boards but the waves were pretty mild. It was the beach in Maui though so you can't complain! I think I am still getting little grains of sand out of my ears though. That stuff just sticks everywhere!!

Hey now, hey now don't dream its over!

Today I felt like I was done with school and out in the real world... until I didn't get a paycheck. Today was my clinical simulation day and it was pretty good. I felt like I could have squished in another patient which would have made for five but I still don't quite get how private practices see like 10 patients a day. I guess I will learn one day soon. Anyway, I really liked being busy and having that extra push of knowing the next patient was coming soon. I saw pretty easy patients and didn't have to do any xrays which I am sure would have made it more hectic. Probably the worst part was the paper work. I got way behind in the morning and the afternoon I found little times throughout the appointments to work on it so I wouldn't get behind. It was a really good learning day.

Mockboard Exam

I have two words: I passed! Sure, it may have been BARELY, but it is a big boost to have not failed miserably like I did last time. I feel like I learned from the places that I missed and I will be able to do it better next time. Before school started I would have never guessed cleaning teeth would be this hard. It really is a lot harder than anyone would think. Hopefully the next mock board just goes even better than this one and then I'll be ready to take on the real deal. At least I will keep telling myself that!

All my patients are going to show up for the rest of the semester

I know my title is really long but it is going to be my new mantra. I just need to stay positive and keep thinking "my patients are going to show up." Because a consecutive streak of no-shows this year I am done with them and I am ready to start having patients show up. Both of my patients this session failed... I was able to move one patient up and found a 1B at the last minute but, if I don't graduate, you can't say I didn't try! One thing that is good is I am noticing that I am getting better at patient treatment and OHI. I am getting better and communicating with the patient what they need to do and just little things are getting fine tuned. So it is okay~

Just another day in clinic

So I just finished another day here at WSU and I am getting more and more confident. It is good. I had a class 1B and a class 5 so the classifications aren't coming along as I'd hoped but it is nice to know that at least some people are getting the patients they need. Although one of my patients cancelled on me for the third time so I was left in a scramble for my second patient today but that trusty resource list pulled through in the end.

A lack of patience

So the night before our last clinic session I called to confirm my appointments for that session. So first I called my morning patient. "Oh, dear I really need to reschedule," she says to me. This is her second cancellation so I go into my schpeal about how it affects my grade and I will try to fit her in and such but it is very important that she keep the appointments. Just then she stops me and tells me and incredible story about how she accidentally poisoned herself with toxic fumes when she was tiling her floor! What are the chances? So then I have my husband call my second patient because he speaks Spanish. At first I didn't believe him when he got off the phone with her and said, "Your day just got a whole lot worse." My second patient was sick! Dang Flu season! So there I was without any patients for the next day and having a 2-4 record of patients over the last 2 weeks. Things are not looking well for me! I begged and pleaded and called everyone I could think of but alas I could only get my dad to come in for the afternoon. And things don't get better by any means. I mean, I still only have like 2 more patients scheduled for the semester and there is no patient pool for me to draw from. I know I am not alone in this total lack of patients. So, consider this my formal call to action. People, we need to really get into gear and start soliciting patients. Everywhere we go, everyone we see, consider them a potential patient. If anyone out there is reading this, please come into the Weber State Dental Hygiene Clinic for a cleaning. Please!

Clinic Week #2

So, thirteen weeks left to go! I had a no-show this morning and this afternoon a class 1B from the resource list. Right now I am a little worried about getting my classifications just because there is no resource list to draw from. I really think we need to go out advertising for some patients. Anyway, my class 1B today was pretty easy. She was a little heavier because she hasn't had a cleaning in 3 years. She also had some recession and sensitivity so I applied some of the Vanish Fluoride varnish, which she seemed happy with. She said it really helped with her sensitivity last time she came in. I just hope I helped talk her into beginning to floss because her poor gums were bright red in some areas. Ya, I know this is compelling stuff... you just can't beat the life of a hygienist.

Intimidation at its best

Last clinic session I had a cancellation in the morning and sat around all morning trying to find things to keep me busy when a certain professor, okay a certain department head wanted her teeth cleaned... and I just happened to be ready and waiting. So, you can imagine how my head was spinning, not to mention it being the first day back in clinic after a month long break. Anyway, all I can say is, if I didn't totally act like an air-head, I did it!! And without missing anything either (whew!)

So in case anyone was wondering, over the break I did some exciting things. One, I got a cyst from my left wrist removed, which left behind a pretty good scar. Please don't hesitate to ask if you are interested in seeing it. The second thing, maybe a little more exciting, I got hitched on Dec 29, 2006! I went to Maui on my honeymoon and now I am back in full swing just getting ready for the next big thing... boards!