Friday the 13th Camping

Eric, Danny, Katie and I spent our Friday the 13th camping in Butterfield canyon. We had a great time, with Danny making homemade ice cream and his famous cobbler, life around a campfire can't get much better. A couple of weird things did happen though. Like when this deer befriended us and was just hanging around within 10 - 20 feet of us for about 20 minutes before Danny finally tried to sneak up to it but scared it and then threw something at it to get it to go away. :( But I did walk up pretty close to get a picture before he scared it away. It was just a yearling but it was still so wierd that it wasn't scared of us at all. Then a little while later we heard this animal sound that I thought was the deer crying from Danny throwing something at it, but when I shone the flashlight where the sound was coming from there was a domestic black cat standing there. That was very freakily appropriate for Friday the 13th! Eric thought we were camping on an old pet cemetary and that was my old cat, Hazel.

Danny says this ice cream maker was the best $15 he ever spent.


Danny broke one of the camping chairs that night so the next morning they threw it in the fire. Unbeknownst to me, I decided to try and roast a Pop Tart over the fire. Well, let me tell you, that was not a good idea and that Pop Tart tasted like a mixture of a burnt marshmellow and burnt canvas. Good thing we bought the 12-pack of Pop Tarts after all!

Pressed flower cards with grandma Barb

So I took a picture of my three favorite cards that I made and you will get the gist of it. I figured with all the time that I spent even though the cards are almost free to make, they are probably worth about $40 a piece. It was a two-day project because on day 1 you have to create your arrangment from dried flowers and leaves on wax paper then you cover the wax paper with Kleenex and cover it with watery Elmer's glue. Then the glue has to dry overnight. On day 2, you have to iron them, cut them out, add the paper inserts and then tie or glue them together. I am sure some enrichment committee somewhere concocted these cute little creations as a great idea but the thing is, they take so long to make when I can just walk into Target, spend 10-15 minutes and $5 and walk out with the same amount of notecards. So there you go, you decide what serves humanity better. If it means spending quality time with grandma Barb though, who can resist?

She works hard for the money!

Well, I didn't work too hard today, I couldn't find a temp job for the day so I just went over to grandma's house with my sister and made some cute flower cards. I'll have to take some pictures and post them tomorrow when we return to finish them. But... I did spend 3 days at Dr. Smith's office this week so it was enough to need a couple extra days' rest. Yesterday just before lunch the worst two hours of my life were from 10:30 -12:30 where Trish & I, along with the help of Melissa (the so cute & way too hard-working hygiene assistant) saw 10 patients. Yes, that number is real. 7 were kids and 3 adults. I don't know how it got done but it really did. It was RIDICULOUS! The good thing is, Dr. Smith hired another assistant so in 2 weeks I'll have my own assistant everyday! Oh, and the other good news is Trish has accepted a job teaching at Dixie so... I get to go full-time, Mon-thu, 8-5, benefits and I really do love everyone I work with so I am very excited and feeling so blessed. Eric is also excited, he keeps saying, "So now I can quit my job." Not a chance babe!

My Husband = Sexy Cool

Who brought Sexy back? How can you bring it back when it never left because my husband had it going on from day one that he was born!

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!