Bird's Words (etc.)

New pics

2011-03-01T08:06:00.003-07:00

For your viewing pleasure: Here are some pics we had done a few weeks ago.

Happy Birthday Jack

2011-01-31T16:17:00.003-07:00

Jack turned 2 last Saturday. We celebrated by going to the Aquarium. He loves to look at fish. He especially liked the clown fish and kept referring to them as "Nemo."

He had 2 birthday parties.

One with the Cornell family:

And one with the Bird Family:

A 2 year old can never get enough cake. He liked us to sing happy birthday and loved the ice cream.

Jack is such a funny little guy. He loves to play with trucks, cars, and trains. He likes to watch the same 4 movies over and over and over again (Cars, Letter Factory, Finding Nemo, and The Fox and the Hound). He is always saying funny things and making us laugh. He speaks in full sentences. He knows the entire abc song and sings it often. He is very concerned about what color everything is and is always asking "what is it?... purple..."

Happy New Year

2011-01-18T15:08:00.007-07:00

Blogging has not really been a priority for me lately, but I would still like to share what's been going on with our family. Maybe this year will be better, but I'm not making any commitments.

Here is a picture of Jack in the snow. He refuses to wear gloves, so he only lasts a few minutes, but doesn't he look cute?

We kicked off our holiday season with one of the standard Christmas time activities. We went up to Temple Square to see the lights. It was beautiful as usual. The same night, we went to see the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas Concert. It was wonderful music and it's fun to see Michael's mother sing with the choir. Jack met Santa for the first time at his daycare's Christmas party. He was timid at first, but as soon as he saw that there were presents involved, he warmed right up.

Jack LOVED Christmas. For about 2 months leading up to Christmas, he has been saying "Jacky geda train set for Timas from Santa." On Christmas morning, shortly after coming down and finding his train set, he stated, "I yuv it." He plays with it all the time and sometimes he will look up from playing and randomly say, "thanks, Santa."

We took Jack sledding for the first time. He loved going down on the big tube that can fit "Mommy and Daddy and Jacky on da tube all togeder."

Michael and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary by going cross country skiing with my sisters and their husbands... very romantic. It was both of our first time cross country skiing and we really enjoyed it.
So if you're still reading after that super long post, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season as well. I am looking forward to this new year and hope to make some positive changes... I don't really believe in New Year's Resolutions, but I have a few things I am working on this year, like training for a marathon and painting my house... we'll see.

Summer 2010

2010-09-11T16:42:00.005-06:00

Just in case anyone's still reading, here's what we've been up to lately...

-Looking cute wearing Daddy's shoes

-Running races... This summer I ran the Wasatch Back Relay, the Georgetown half marathon, and this morning I ran the Utah Marathon Relay. This is my team from this morning. Racing has been really fun and rewarding for me this summer. Each time I do a race, I prove to myself that I am improving. I think I 'm going to cool it off with running over the winter and try something new.

Thanksgiving point Dinosaur Museum- Jack loves "Dinos" and had a great time looking at the bones.

Wheeler Farm. Jack is obsessed with "trackers" (tractors) and had a great time looking at the animals. He knows all his animal sounds.

Jack's cousins came to visit from Colorado for their mom's 10 year high school reunion. Jack and I drove back to Colorado where Tara and I ran the Georgetown Half Marathon. We both got a PR. Woo-hoo.

Playing in the park. This pic is with his cousin Halle, but Jack is a big fan of going to the park with Mommy during the day. He especially loves it when we take a picnic. He loves the "whings and lice" (swings and slides).

Lost

2010-06-27T10:06:00.005-06:00

Last weekend we went on a family hike to Broadsfork. The parking lot at the trail head was packed, but we only saw 2 people on our way to the meadow/lake. When we got there, we took this picture...

We ate some snacks then Michael said that he wanted to go over the next ridge to see what was over there. Jack and I stayed back to throw rocks in the lake (probably Jack's favorite thing to do). As Michael left, I said, "wave at us to come if it's really cool." He said ok and set out over the ridge. About 15 min. later, I see him from afar and he waves, indicating that we should come see something really great. I put Jack in the pack and started heading up the trail. After hiking for a while, I didn't see Michael. I kept saying to myself, he's just around the next bend. The terrain started to get a little rough. I was bouldering and going over and under trees (normally ok, but difficult with Jack on my back). After hiking for 15 or so minutes with no sign of my husband, I started to get frustrated. I started thinking, why would he tell us to come and then just leave us? Then it occurred to me... he wouldn't. Something was seriously wrong. He must have fallen and was unconscious or dead (because he wasn't responding to my panicky screams). I walked for a few more minutes before I decided to turn around and hike down where I was going to call search and rescue.

I saw one man on my way back to the lake. He said that he'd seen a guy that matched Michael's description, so I started to feel a little better. When I got back to the lake, there was no sign of Michael. The backpack I had left sitting on the rock was gone though. I decided to continue down the trail. I was still convinced that my husband was dead. I was even cursing myself for not increasing our life insurance policies and trying to figure out how I would make it on my own. I was so scared that I could barely lift my legs so I was not making good time down the trail. Near the end of my hike, I saw a couple who told me that Michael was at the trail head waiting for me. I felt so relieved that I started crying. My step became lighter and soon I was reunited with my husband.

He said that he was just waving to say hi, not to tell me to come. He had bushwhacked over to another part of the meadow while I was heading up the trail to meet him. It was all just a miscommunication, but it made for a pretty funny story. I need to learn not to be so dramatic.

WBR 2010

2010-06-25T13:39:00.004-06:00

Well, the day I've been waiting for has come and gone. Since finishing a half marathon in April, I have been training for the Wasatch Back Relay (188.2 miles, 12 runners, 2 days). My first leg of the race was very intimidating for me... 7.4 miles straight up a mountain. Every time I thought about the race during training, I wondered if I would be able to complete this leg without dying. Turns out I didn't die and I even made pretty good time at it. My other 2 legs went well, with me running my fastest pace ever in a race (since high school) on my final leg.

My sister, Tara and a bunch of her friends from Boulder, CO were my teammates (Team name Mind over Mileage). I loved this race because it presented such a unique challenge for each runner and her skill set. We finished in the top 3rd of the women's division. I came away from this race feeling very inspired by all the runners (including myself). I'm very motivated to work on my speed now, so watch out (August 14) Georgetown CO 13.1.

I had to share...

2010-05-17T15:48:00.004-06:00

So, I was reading over an old post on my running team's blog and I found this link that was posted by one of my teammates... It really rang true to me and pretty much sums up everything I believe...
http://isnickelbacktheworstbandever.com
enjoy...

Three Little Kittens

2010-05-10T08:07:00.006-06:00

Last Wednesday, we looked outside our back window and this is what we saw..

I called Animal Control to come get them, but they were really busy that evening and wouldn't be able to come until morning. So I fed the kittens that evening and was planning on calling again the next day. But the next day Jack was having so much fun watching them and yada yada yada... they still live in my backyard. Well, the two black ones do. The white one disappeared (very sad). Now I don't want to call Animal Control because they are just going to kill the cute little guys. I'm not sure what to do with them. Does anyone want one or have any suggestions?

Green Spring Cleaning

2010-04-21T09:48:00.006-06:00

Since Jack was born, I've been trying to rid my home of toxic chemicals. The greatest offenders in my house are definitely my cleaning supplies. NOT ANY MORE! I've been reading about and talking to people who use natural cleaning products (and I'm not talking about Greenworks). I just wasn't convinced that vinegar and baking soda would clean as well as Comet and bleach. But this week I decided to just give it a try... I'm completely sold. I had hard water stains on my glass shower door that I had tried to clean with every chemical I could think of. Who knew that a little vinegar and baking soda would take those stains right off?
I am so excited about this. I got my recipes for my new green/non-toxic cleaning supplies from this website (I added some essential oils to the recipe to make the cleaner smell good too). My next project is homemade non-toxic weed killer for my yard...
Happy spring cleaning everyone...

Jack's One Year Portraits

2010-03-18T14:58:00.004-06:00

Just thought I'd share...

Photos by Megan Bradley http://clandestineimages.com

Swimming Lessons

2010-02-26T14:30:00.004-07:00

When I was a kid, I took swimming lessons every summer. At the end of the course all of my friends would get certificates with gold stars indicating that they passed that particular level and had could move on to the next. My certificate never had the gold star, but to spare my feelings, my mom would always put me in the next level so I could be with my friends. Needless to say, I've never been terribly good at swimming.

Michael, on the other hand, is a pretty good swimmer. He was even on the swim team in Jr. High :). A couple of years ago he tried unsuccessfully to teach me how to swim. It's not like I'm going to drown... I just really struggle with my technique.

All that changed this week. On Monday, I took my first swimming lesson as an adult. I've had 4 lessons so far and I feel like I'm improving. My breast and back strokes are alright, but I've been struggling with the free style. Well, last night, it just clicked...it's like everything just came together all of the sudden. I am now looking forward to swimming as a means of cross training. Maybe someday, I'll do a triathalon.

Happy Birthday to Jack

2010-02-15T09:02:00.004-07:00

This post is long overdue... Jack turned 1 year old on January 22nd. Here are a few pics of his birthday party.

He is such a good little boy. He recently started using walking as his primary source of getting around. He can follow me so fast now. He is a happy and healthy little guy. His favorite things to do are play with anything round "ba" (ball), play with his light-up, noise making basketball hoop, play with cars "oommmmm" (vroom), read books with mom and dad, and hug and pat his stuffed animals.

I also recently discovered that he is quite a fan of chocolate milk... We were at Costco and he was enjoying himself with the smorgasbord of samples. One of them was a little paper cup of chocolate milk. I gave him a sip. He tasted chocolate milk for the first time and you would have thought he had died and gone to heaven. He grabbed the cup away from me, drank the whole thing, smashed the cup into his face and started licking what remained while saying "mmm...mmm...mmm."

It sure has been a fun year getting to know our sweet little boy. We love him so much and enjoy having him in our family.

A Feeling

2010-01-14T15:38:00.003-07:00

Do you ever get the feeling... that craving for change? Over the last few days, I have this anxious, nagging feeling in the bottom of my stomach. I can't tell if it's the "something is coming" feeling, or the "I wish something would come" feeling.
A lot of people are scared of change. I'm not normally one of those people. I kind of like big changes like moving or getting a new job. I view them as a chance to start over. I don't know if any big changes are coming any time soon, but I've got a few little things brewing in my pot of change...
-I'm trying to improve my body (who's not?). I've learned some new things to do with weights and the ball and figured out a way to do a lot of it at home.
-I am trying to improve my overall health through healthy eating. For Christmas I received a subscription to the Cooking Light magazine, a knife block, and an apron with chickens on it. I have vowed to try one new healthy recipe each week.
-I am trying NAET www.naet.com to get rid of my restless leg syndrome. This is an eastern therapy that is supposed to reduce your sensitivity to chemicals, foods, hormones, etc. I am also being treated for a variety of emotions and my voo-doo witch doctor claims that it can help with morning sickness. I'll do a more in depth post about this at a later time.
-I'm starting a collection of essential oils. My friend Maria sent me some samples a couple of months ago. I've been studying the properties of many of the essential oils and am intrigued enough to try them out. I'll keep you posted on this as well.
Perhaps these are my little new year resolutions. Whatever they are, I hope these little changes help me to improve myself and my life.

First Haircut

2010-01-11T17:01:00.003-07:00

Before...

After...

The Holidays

2010-01-04T12:36:00.007-07:00

December was a busy month for us. We had a great time with our families and we really enjoyed our holiday season. Here are the highlights:

-Santa Jack...I'm pretty sure this hat was made for a dog, but I made Jack wear it to every Christmas Party we attended.

- We participated in a Sub-for-Santa with the Bird siblings. It was a lot of fun picking out toys for kids who might not get much for Christmas.

-Temple Square Lights and Secret Dinner... It is a Bird Family tradition to go to dinner and see the lights at Temple Square once a year. This year, the eating establishment of choice for this excursion was Cafe Rio. I enjoy a good pork salad just as much as the next person, but come on... there is a Cafe Rio on every street corner in our own neck of the woods. Nobody in the family really cares what Michael and I think, so we didn't even try to object. Instead, we politely called and told them we wouldn't be able to make it to dinner, but that we would meet them afterwards for the lights. We then promptly headed to Z Tejas, where we enjoyed delicious food that we can't have just any old time.

-Spent time with the Cornell cousins. My sister, Tara and her family came out to visit from Colorado. Jack had a great time playing with his cousins. He especially liked taking toys away from Baby Blake.

-Opened presents on Christmas morning... Jack like the wrapping paper, but lost interest after 1 present. He got lots of fun toys from his parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles.

10 Months Old

2009-11-23T14:20:00.004-07:00

Jack has been crawling for a little over 2 months now. He is very good at it. He follows me around the house as I get my work done. He likes to open cupboards, drawers, and doors. He likes to explore new parts of the house. He likes to climb up the staris, but has not yet mastered coming down.
Jack loves to eat. If he sees me put something into my mouth without offering him a bite he becomes very upset. His favorites are graham crackers, gold fish, and fruit puffs.
He learned how to play patty-cake and wave bye-bye. He says "ma-ma" and "ba-ba" and makes an assortment of other random noises. He likes to be with his mommy and daddy. They make him laugh pretty hard.
He is such a good boy and we love him so much. It has been a wonderful 10 months with him in our family.
Here are some pics of what he's been up to.

Drinking juice with his feet up...

Unrolling all the toilet paper...

Getting into the cupboards...

Sleeping...

Looking adorable in his new winter hat...

I Did it Again

2009-11-10T14:15:00.003-07:00

What?

13.1 miles. Nichole and I ran the Provo Halloween Half Marathon (the most fun you can have in Provo without getting arrested). We dressed up like Peter Pan and his Shadow.
We have had such a good time training for this race. We've been running together 2 to 3 times per week for about 4 months now, so this was a landmark day for us... one that we have been looking forward to and preparing for. I am proud of us for accomplishing our goal. It has been so nice to do something for myself. When Jack joined our family, there was an adjustment period where I didn't have much time or energy to do things for myself (not complaining, it's just the way it had to be). When we started running, I quickly started to feel better in both body and mind. Taking time to do something I wanted to do to improve myself has been wonderful and therapeutic. Thanks Nichole, for having this great idea and for being my partner through this.

I really enjoy running races. I like that they give me a reason to workout, a goal, a purpose. I have a full schedule of race goals for the next few months...
November: Thanksgiving 5K
April: Salt Lake City Half Marathon
June: Wasatch Back Relay
August: Hobble Creek Half Marathon

If anyone is interested in training for or running any or all of these races with me, do it.

Jack-o-Lantern

2009-11-10T14:06:00.003-07:00

So this is a little past due, but I wanted to show you all how cute Jack looked on Halloween. We debated between Jack in the Box, Cracker Jack, Jack @$$ (kidding... we don't hate our child), and Jack-O-Lantern. We found this cute costume on diapers.com at a discounted price, so it was an easy choice.

The Mile High Half

2009-10-24T06:58:00.006-06:00

I did it. I ran 13.1 miles on Sunday. It was awesome. Tara and I have been training for this for the last 13 weeks. It feels weird that it's over just like that...the thing I've been working for and training so hard for is finished. I accomplished my goal, but as life goes, I had a few last-minute issues to hold me up a little. I was totally psyched and felt prepared to run the race. I did my last long training run about a week before race day. The next morning, I woke up with a fever... "oh no," I thought. Over the weekend, it turned into a pretty bad case of bronchitis. Respiratory illness and running are not compatible. On Monday, I went to the Dr. and got on some antibiotics and an inhaler. I was not able to run until Friday and it was only 2.5 miles, and it hurt my lungs. I was feeling alright by bedtime on Saturday. I wanted to be sure to get enough rest, so I went to bed early. At 1 a.m., Jack (who has been sleeping through the night for months) decided that he didn't want to sleep. I fed him thinking that he would eat and go back down... no such luck. He was awake until 4 a.m. and so was I. Once we started running, I felt pretty good. I am happy with my accomplishment and I am proud of myself and my sister for finishing what we set out to do. The above picture is us at the finish line with our other sis, Carlie (who was an awesome help with Jack during the race).
Jack and I headed out to Denver last Saturday morning. We had a fun time with Tara, Rusty, Halle, Josh, Blake and Carlie. Michael had to stay home and work (someone had to foot the bill for our trip...). It was fun to hang out with my sisters doing a little shopping and lunching and movieing. Carlie went home on Monday morning and it's too bad because she missed out on the adventure to the pumpkin patch. The kids loved petting the animals and climbing around on the pumpkins.

Weekend Retreat

2009-10-01T09:35:00.003-06:00

Last weekend, Michael and I packed our bags, dropped Jack off with the Grandparents, and headed up to Snowbird for the weekend. It was fun to spend some un-interuppted time with my husband.
Oktoberfest is going on right now, so there was plenty of free entertainment. We also got free tram passes with our room, so we rode to the top and hiked around for a while. It was nice to be away without really going anywhere.
It was a little bit hard for me to leave Jack (this was the first time we left him overnight), but he did well and it was extra fun to see him when we got back.

Granduer Peak

2009-09-21T12:58:00.004-06:00

Since Michael and I both worked on Labor Day, we had our own special holiday the following Friday. We took the day off and headed up to Grandeur Peak. It's a beautiful hike with the trail head in Milcreek Canyon. It is about 6 miles round trip, with the way up a fairly steep incline, and the way back a nice, easy, downhill stroll. We made the mistake of starting at noon on a very, very hot day, but despite the heat, we made it to the top in pretty good time.
Jack is such a good sport about our family hikes. He seems to enjoy being packed up mountains on his daddy's back. He really only fussed when he was hungry. Perhaps our enthusiasm for the outdoors has been genetically passed on to our child :).

Goodbye Old Friend

2009-09-04T13:45:00.002-06:00

It's time to say goodbye to an old faithful friend... my car. I bought my 1998 Honda Civic with the help of my parents in November of 2002. We've been many places together since then. It came with me when I got married and was our only vehicle until we bought the Liberty a couple of months ago. I put 113,532 (someone else put 33000) miles on it.
On Tuesday, Michael was driving it home from work. He got off the freeway and was stopped at a red light on the off-ramp. A guy fell asleep at the wheel and rear ended our car. Of course, the guy who fell asleep is irresponsible and doesn't have car insurance, so our insurance company has to cover everything and we have to pay our deductible. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr. The adjuster looked at it this morning and decided it was totaled. So we are now looking for another car... NOT what we wanted to do this weekend.
Oh well. I'm sure something will work out. By the way, Michael was not injured at all in the accident. I wish I had a picture of it to go along with this post, but you'll just have to imagine what it might have looked like all mashed up...

Happy Life

2009-08-20T16:35:00.003-06:00

Do you ever have one of those days when something just hits you?

Today is an ordinary day. It started with a brief visit to the dermatologist who examined a "changing" mole I have on my shoulder. "It's nothing" he said. Then Jack and I came home and spent the day together playing with toys, doing laundry, baking, snuggling, etc.

Throughout my day, I just keep having the thought "my life is good." I am in a great place right now. I am young, healthy, happy, in love with the best man, have the sweetest baby, a good job, a nice home, wonderful friends, and I'm near a supportive and loving family. What more could I want?... (maybe a little more disposable cash, but I'm not going to complain).

Jack is 6 Months

2009-08-05T14:04:00.004-06:00

Jack had his 6 month photo shoot last week and we just got the pics back. My brother, Landon's girlfriend, Megan has recently started her own photography business, so we wanted to be supporters. She did a great job. I guess it's hard to take a bad picture of such a cute little guy though.

Jack has grown a lot in the last 6 months. He now weighs 16 lbs 12 oz (about 10 lbs more than when he was born). He is a joy to be around and Michael and I are so happy to have him in our family. At 6 months Jack
-Is able to sit up all by himself
-Chews on anything and everything he can get his hands on
-Is growing his first tooth
-Is continuing to develop his funny little personality
-Is starting to eat solid foods
-Is finally mobile (if you count rolling around the floor from toy to toy).

Family Picnic and Canyon Drive

2009-07-27T10:58:00.004-06:00

On Saturday, we went up American Fork Canyon for a picnic. We drove up to A meadow above the Timpanooke trail head (same place where Michael asked me to marry him).

After our picnic, we decided that since we now have a car that works off road, we would go on a little exploratory drive. The drive was beautiful. There were wildflowers everywhere. We found a few trail heads for hikes that we might go back to. We assumed that the road would come out another canyon, but instead, it took us a little over 1 and 1/2 hours to get to a dead end. So we had to back-track our whole trip. It was still fun and beautiful.

Raw Wednesday #1: a learning experience

2009-07-27T10:40:00.002-06:00

Well, last week, I attempted my first Raw Wednesday. I was not as successful as I would have liked. What I learned is that I need a little more prep work. I was eating whole foods, but I completely left out grains, so by about 3 pm, I was absolutely STARVING. I decided to give up and try again next Wed. So I am spending some time making some more hearty raw foods for this coming week. These foods take a little preparation because they have to be sprouted, soaked, and dehydrated. This week I am making Raw Cinnamon Granola and Raw Hummus. This should keep me more satiated. Here is my menu for this Raw Wednesday:

-Breakfast: Raw Cinnamon Granola with Almond milk and fresh fruit
-Lunch: Celery soup with avocado and red bell peppers (I didn't get around to having this for dinner last week)
-Dinner: Green Salad with veggies and hummus
-Dessert: Mango Sorbet (again, didn't get around to this last week)
-Snacks: Raw nuts, veggies with hummus, fresh fruit

If anyone wants to join me for a delicious raw breakfast, here is the recipe for the Granola:

3 cups rolled oats
1 cup slivered raw almonds
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (or more to taste)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup pure maple syrup

Combine dry ingredients in plastic container. Add syrup and mix well until moderately saturated.
Cover container and dry overnight in refrigerator.

*Note: I have not yet attempted this recipe, so I'm not saying its good, I'm just saying that I'm trying it. I hope it's good...

My first week of training for my half marathon was quite a bit more successful than my first raw Wednesday. I'm up to 4 miles... Woo-hoo.

Raw Wednesdays/ Half Marathon

2009-07-20T13:30:00.001-06:00

It seems like everywhere I turn, there is some advertisement for "get thin quick" or "health in a pill." Although some of these programs might be effective, my question is are they healthy? Our country is obsessed with weight and health, but it seems that very few of us are actually taking the right steps to get there (I know there are times in my life when I fall into this category).

I don't believe in being extreme. I want to be healthy. I want to eat well and live an active lifestyle. I want to feel good. I've decided that for me, health is not a number. It's how I feel. It's having balance in my life.

I am turning over a new leaf. Today I begin my journey for better health. I'm starting with 2 steps.

Step 1 is Raw Wednesdays. On Wednesdays, I will only be consuming raw foods. This is my menu for the coming Wednesday:

Breakfast: Berry Salad
Lunch: Greens and Veggie Salad with raw Almonds
Dinner: Celery and Avocado soup
Dessert: Mango Sorbet
Snacks: Whatever I want as long as it's raw

I have been wanting to incorporate more raw foods into my diet for a long time, and I'm going to do raw Wednesdays until I feel like I've learned what I want to learn: planning, recipes I like, how to use a dehydrator, which raw foods I enjoy and which I would prefer to stay away from, what I can eat as a meal vs. snack, etc.

Step 2 is that today is the first day of a 12 week training schedule to run a half marathon. I will be training with my friend Nichole. I am feeling very excited and motivated to get back into shape (and it wouldn't hurt if I lost a few of the lingering baby pounds in the process, but like I said, health is not a number for me).

So, there you have it... my first two steps of my journey for better health... wish me luck. I'll keep you posted.

Jack's First Peak

2009-07-20T13:03:00.006-06:00

I love the mountains. I have a sense of freedom when I'm hiking a trail and a wonderful sense of accomplishment when I've reached the summit. I am so happy to live in this beautiful place where I can access freedom and accomplishment so easily.

On Saturday evening, we thought we'd beat the heat and go to a higher altitude for a hike. We did Sunset Peak. The trail head is above Alta at the Albion Basin. We did get out of the heat, but we did not plan for the bugs. All three of us got quite a few mosquito bites... yipes.

Should

2009-07-17T14:50:00.003-06:00

Let's talk about the word should. A few years ago, I had a conversation about the word should with my crainosacral therapist and it changed my life. I hate this word and try never to use it. It promotes guilt. For example:

-I should exercise today (even though I've been up all night and I worked all day and I'm exhausted and I'm not really going to exercise).

-I should do the laundry (even though I have a million other things that take priority over the laundry and I'm not actually going to do it).

-I shouldn't eat this cookie (even though I want to and will anyway).

-I should cook more often.

-I shouldn't take a nap.

-I should work more hours.

-I shouldn't buy this item.

-I should etc. etc. etc.

Bottom line... If you're going to do something, do it. If you're not, don't, but for Pete's sake, don't waste your time "shoulding" yourself and feeling guilty about all the things you should be doing. It'll just make you feel worse about yourself and your life.

Our Trip to Colorado

2009-07-08T19:36:00.006-06:00

Well, the original plan was to hit both Thailand and Peru before having a baby, but now that Jack is part of our family, we wouldn't trade him for a trip around the world.

Anyway, our big trip for this year was a trip to Erie, Colorado, home of my sister, Tara and her family. Tara had a new baby, Blake, at the end of May, so we went out there to let Jack meet his new cousin. We had a fun time while we were there. Here is a picture of the cousins: Blake, Josh, Halle, Jack. Above is a pic of Blake and Jack. They happened to have matching outfits... we couldn't resist.

On Wednesday, Tara and I had a girls night out. We went to the awesome venue Red Rock Amphitheater and saw Celtic Woman preform. They were fantastic. They had some of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. There was also a fiddle player who was very entertaining, dancing and jumping all around the stage as she played her instrument. While we girls were enjoying our night out, the men took the children on a little hike. Apparently there was a lot of complaining and crying... sounds like fun.

Thursday we packed up the beach bag and went to Boulder Reservoir. There is a fun little beach area. The kids played in the sand and we all swam around in the water.

Friday, Michael, Jack and I went to Chautauqua Park and hiked around. The Flat Irons Area is beautiful. After a hot afternoon of hiking, we headed over to Pearl Street to get some lunch and do a little shopping. We had gyros from a fun little Mediterranean place.
Later that evening, we enjoyed a neighborhood BBQ in the park and in the Erie tradition, celebrated our country's birthday one day early with fireworks at the golf course. The kids really enjoyed the fireworks... especially Jack and Blake who slept right through them.

Saturday, Michael and Rusty went for a hike. They summited Mt. Bierdstadt at 14,060 feet. This was Michael's first 14er, but I'm sure it won't be his last. While the men were hiking, Tara and I took the kids to a farmers market in Boulder. We enjoyed sampling delicious organic treats and walking around the park. We topped off our outing with lunch on Pearl Street from Old Chicago Pizza. Wow, was it delicious.

We just hung out on Saturday evening and Michael, Jack and I flew home on Sunday. What a fun trip.

One Little Thing

2009-07-08T18:55:00.002-06:00

OK... I have a complaint to post...

I like to be kind to the earth and to my pocket book as well, so, recently I've been practicing the art of reusing. Over the past several months, I've purchased several used items including my kitchen table, a pump for my baby's milk, a jogging stroller, and a backpack baby carrier.

I like the idea of reusing something that someone else would have otherwise thrown away. And, I like the concept of paying a fair price for a used item. The problem with several sellers of used items is that they are not selling these items for a fair price.

If you have had something for several years and it has visible signs of your use (even if it doesn't), don't try to get only a few dollars less than the current retail price of the new version of the same item. People act like they are giving you such a good deal... I"m selling this whatever for $10 less than retail (sure, I've been using it for 10 years and I've beat the crap out of it, but hey, it's cheaper for you). I think it's fabulous that so many people are trying to make an extra few bucks on things that we do not need anymore, but don't get greedy... even if the item is in great condition, it is still used and not worth as much as a new one.

Maybe I'm just being cheap...

A Busy Blogless Month

2009-07-07T16:21:00.006-06:00

I pretty much dropped off the face of the blogosphere last month. Here's what we've been up to:

We celebrated my niece, Maile's 3rd Birthday by going to the zoo.
You might notice Jack's head popping out of Michael's jacket in front of the giraffes. We had a good time until the flood started. It rained like crazy and we had to wait it out in the cat house.

We celebrated Father's Day by taking Jack for his first hike in Michael's new baby-carrier-backpack, which will from this time forth be known as the Jack-Pack.

I celebrated my 26th birthday. Michael got me a jogging stroller (exactly what I wanted). Then he took me out on a fun date of Indian food (my favorite) and a movie. We also had a little party with my family.

We also had quite an experience when Michael was asked to be in charge of a concession stand at the Lehi Roundup Rodeo. He had to staff it with 15-18 volunteers each night for 3 nights. I worked one night and that was enough for me. We didn't really see each other at all for those 3 days. Thank goodness that's all over.

The last day of June we flew out to Colorado to visit my sister, Tara and her family... post of fun filled trip to Boulder coming soon.

Be Kind in 4 Ways, But Not at 4 Ways

2009-06-04T14:38:00.005-06:00

This happens to me a lot...

I understand that you're only trying to be nice when you forfeit your right of way to let someone else go while driving, but this practice has got to stop. For example, at a 4 way stop, just take your turn. It creates too much confusion when you wave to the other person, saying "you go," then they gesture back, "no, you go... after all, it is your turn." then the other person waves back, perhaps a friendly "thank you," but you're not sure if they're saying "no you go," so you think to yourself, "I do have the right of way," and start to ease your way past the stop sign. At the same moment, the other driver puts his foot on the gas pedal. You nearly run into each other in the middle of the intersection, but brake just in time, leaving both drivers feeling frustrated and annoyed. I know you were just trying to be nice, but you nearly caused an accident by doing so.

Certainly, I am not suggesting that we never be kind to others. But when driving, take your turn... oh, and if you're in a crowded parking lot (such as after a concert or sporting event), do the every-other car merging thing. It works wonders.

So, I am listing 4 ways you can be kind, but not at a 4 way stop sign:

1. Invite your neighbors over for dinner
2. Leave a note with the top 100 reasons you love your significant other
3. Allow someone who only has a couple of items in her hand to go in front of you in the grocery store check out line
4. Rewind

Jack is 4 months

2009-05-23T08:48:00.004-06:00

Jack turned 4 months old yesterday. We celebrated by going to the doctor for some more shots. Poor little guy.

Jack is a happy and healthy baby. He weighs 14 lb 1.5 oz (34th percentile) and is 25 inches tall (55 th percentile). His favorite thing to do is suck on his fists... sometimes he tries to fit both of them in his mouth at the same time. He is learning how to play with toys and is able to grip thin objects. He loves bath time and will lay in there, kicking his legs off until the water gets cold. He loves to be rocked in the rocking chair and bounced on the big exercise ball. He smiles and laughs and coos. He even sleeps through the night (since he was 7 weeks old). He is so much fun to be around. Here are some of my favorite Jack pics from the last month.

A week of firsts

2009-05-23T08:18:00.004-06:00

We had a fun week of firsts at our house:

Last Saturday, I planted my first garden. It is a small 3X5 square foot garden. I'm starting out small during my experimental year, but if I like it and it works, I'm going to do a bigger one next year.

That evening, My mom taught me how to make jam. It was a first for me and it turned out very tasty. I have enough in my freezer to last at least a year.On Monday, Jack had his first of many to come evenings in the canyon. We went up American Fork Canyon and roasted hot dogs and smores over the fire. We forgot to bring condiments, so the dogs were a little dry... oops. Jack enjoyed watching the fire and he liked looking at the rushing river. For a while now, I have been wanting to learn how to make homemade bread. It's just so much better. On Wednesday, I googled the phrase "easy bread recipe" (It's my first time... I don't want to get too complicated) and after sifting through many easy recipes, I decided on "No Knead Wheat Bread" from Betty Crocker. Well, I made bread and it was delicious. I think next week I'll try kneading.After Michael got home from work that evening, we decided to take the new car out for a spin... off road. We geared up and headed up AF canyon again. We have been looking for a new car for a while. We needed a second car and wanted something with 4 wheel drive for all our adventuring, so we ended up with a Jeep Liberty... that fits both our needs and our wants.

So, It was a fun and experimental week. I think I'll do each and every activity again.

Tulip Festival

2009-05-08T09:56:00.004-06:00

Last week, I visited Thanksgiving Point's Tulip Festival... Twice. The first time was an activity for Dialysis patients and staff funded by the Kidney Foundation. We had a nice time, but it was windy and cold, so we kind of rushed through the gardens. It was fun to go with Kasey and Brian who also have a little baby, Sam, who was born 4 weeks after Jack.

The second time, Katie and I took Jack and Zeke for a fun filled afternoon. Our favorite part of the day was when a mother said to her crying child, "don't be sad, it's tulip time."

Afterwards, Jack and Zeke crashed on the bean bag at my house.

Nurses Day

2009-05-06T17:52:00.004-06:00

Michael sent me flowers at work today. It's Nurses Day. I've never gotten flowers delivered to me at work (or anywhere else) before. I felt so special. Thanks Michael.

Happy Birthday to Michael

2009-05-06T17:42:00.006-06:00

Michael turned 26 on Sunday. He is the best husband ever. We spent the entire weekend celebrating his birth.

On Saturday evening, we dropped Jack off with my mom and went out. I decided to take him someplace nice that we hadn't been to before... Bambara (it's the restaurant inside the Hotel Monaco). It was very nice and we had a really good time.

On Sunday, he got to open his gift from me... A REI day pack made from recycled materials that was stuffed with all his favorite snacks. We got to have cake and ice cream twice that evening... once at my parents' home, and once with Michael's family. We were all hopped up on sugar.

Monday night, we went out with Michael's parents to Smoky Mountain Pizzeria for yet another celebration.

Now we're all birthdayed out.

5 years ago...

2009-04-29T11:01:00.006-06:00

5 years ago last Friday, I ran a marathon. Yes, me... 26.2 miles.

Last Friday, I ran 1.5 miles. It felt like a marathon.

I have about 8 lbs. to loose from the pregnancy. I have been making excuses (some of them legitimate) as to why I am unable to work out:

-I am too tired... I've been up all night with the baby
-My vericose veins are hurting
-I can't work it into my schedule
-Jack is not 3 months old so I can't take him to the daycare

All of these things are resolved (except my veins did hurt last night, but that was the first time in a while), so I am out of excuses.

Oh, and I'm addicted to sugar... do they have rehab for that?

I always say "If it's important, you'll make time for it." So it's time I take my own advice and get going on getting rid of these 8 lbs.

I just found this photo of myself and my two BFFs Melissa (on left) and Katie (on right) after finishing the marathon. They trained with me but were unable to run the race due to injuries.

Working Out Isn't Working Out

2009-04-10T11:11:00.003-06:00

Last night Michael and I decided to go to the local rec-center to work out. We bought an annual pass in January. I have not been working out much because of some painful varicose veins leftover from my pregnancy (I tried running about a month ago, but it hurt too much), so when I decided to go try the low-impact elliptical machine, it was kind of a big step for me.
Also, I haven't wanted to take Jack there while he was so young and his immune system was so frail, but he's almost 3 months old now, and he has been out enough that I feel comfortable taking him there.
So anyway Michael went to work out in the weight room and I went over to the cardio side. I had Jack sitting there in his car seat beside me as I began my workout. About 1 min into my warm up, a staff member came up to me and said that I wasn't allowed to have my baby in the cardio room (the last place I had a membership did not allow children in the cardio or weight areas, but did allow infants in car seats, so I figured that this was ok). She said that the reason for this rule was that someone could "fly off a treadmill and injure the baby." She then let me know that I was welcome to take him to the daycare for a small fee of $2.50/hr.
So, I figure that if I workout 5 times/week, it'll cost me $50/ month to put Jack in the daycare to keep him safe from people flying off treadmills (It is only $25/month for our couples pass). I think he is significantly more likely to get injured in the daycare than he is by someone flying off a treadmill.
My point is, I don't mind that you enforce your rules, but please don't tell me some B.S. reason for it like "people flying off treadmills." Just tell me the truth: We want your $2.50/hr.

Jack's Busy Weekend

2009-03-31T12:19:00.006-06:00

Jack had kind of a crazy weekend. On Saturday, he went with his mom and dad up to Park City to the Canyons Ski Resort where they were going to watch a pond skimming contest that was advertised as a free event. When we arrived, we were informed that the event was free, but that we each had to pay $15 to get up the gondola to get to the event (the worker also let me know that Jack could go up for free...thanks). We were late and would have only gotten to see a few minutes of the pond skimming, so we decided to spend our $30 at the outlets instead. We bought some new clothes for Jack because his newborn size clothes are getting a little snug. I also got some bigger shirts for myself (hopefully by summer I'll be able to wear last year's clothes a little more comfortably). Michael is the only one who didn't get to buy anything... His clothes still fit him. When we were done shopping, we headed back up to The Canyons for a Wailers concert. I think there is only one guy who was actually in Bob Marley's band, but it was fun anyway. This was Jack's first out of womb concert experience. He enjoyed it so much that he slept through the entire thing.

On Sunday, Jack had his baby blessing at our church. He looked so handsome in his little white tux vest and bow tie. We had our families over for waffles after the blessing. After everybody went home, we three Birds took a long nap. I still need to put the extra table and chairs away... maybe later.

This is a photo of our family members who were able to attend Jack's baby blessing. And I had to put just one more of Jack in his white suit.

Shots

2009-03-27T15:59:00.004-06:00

Jack got his shots yesterday. It was so sad. The nurse gave him this yummy roto-virus vaccine that he enjoyed. He was lying on the table smiling at her then WHAM! 2 needles in his left leg and another in his right. He cried and cried. He fell asleep on the car ride home, and when he woke up 2 hours later, he burst into an inconsolable fit. He wouldn't even eat. He had never felt such pain before. I did get him to take some infant Tylenol which he quite likes (grape flavored). He is doing much better today. I'm glad he won't remember it.

A Small Accomplishment

2009-03-27T15:41:00.003-06:00

After finishing school, I discovered reading for pleasure (something that was foreign to me during my college years). Although I quite enjoy reading, I have never been one to read long books. I get bored with them and impatient with myself (I have never been a terribly speedy reader).
A few months ago, I was looking for a book to read and at the suggestion of my sister, Tara, tararustyhallejosh.blogspot.com I decided to take on Gone With the Wind. It has 1024 pages, so normally I wouldn't have touched it, but I did, and I finished it today (I started it before Christmas). Oh, and I loved it. Although I do feel sorry for poor Scarlett. Her life is so hard. Oh well, I'll not think of it now.
So all I'm saying is, "good for me"... and does anyone have a suggestion for another good book for me to read (it doesn't have to be long)?

Back to Work

2009-03-20T15:05:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was my last day as a stay at home mom. I went back to work today. I am cutting back my hours to 20/week, so I only have to be away from Jack two days per week.

He will be 2 months old on Sunday. I can't believe how much he's grown. It is so much fun to have him around. He knows how to sleep for 7 hours at night now and it is wonderful. He has also recently started to smile and coo and it is so adorable. He is a very good baby. Here are some cute pics of him.

Doggy Dilemma

2009-03-19T11:45:00.004-06:00

Do all dogs really go to heaven? I don't think so. I have good reason to believe that my 3 doors down neighbor's dog is going straight to hell. The reason?
Jack has been doing great, taking his afternoon nap without any problems. Since the weather has gotten a little nicer, the neighbors let their dog stay outside in a pen. The dog barks incessantly, waking Jack up early every single time I put him down. The dog also barks late at night, keeping Michael and I awake.
So what do I do? I don't want to be the neighbor who goes up to the door and says, "Hi, my name is Natalie. I live a few houses down. Nice to meet you. By the way, could you shut your dog up before I call animal control?" I am 3 houses away... It's got to be bothering other people too. I don't know what to do. My baby needs to sleep. Any suggestions?

It Works... For Pizza

2009-02-26T14:48:00.004-07:00

I am driving down the road and I see a Little Cesar's Mascot standing outside the store with a sign that says "Come get a pizza for $5." I think to myself, I sure am hungry and I haven't prepared dinner yet and it's only $5... I'll do it.
I am driving down the same street and see a giant bright pink cell phone mascot standing outside the T-Mobile store. It's sign says "Come buy a new cell phone plan with T-Mobile." I think to myself, I already have a cell phone plan with ATT. I don't want to pay $400 to break my contract and then pay more per month for a plan with T-Mobile. I won't do it.
I continue my drive and see somebody dressed as the Statue of Liberty standing outside the Liberty Mutual store. It's sign says, "Come in now and let us do your taxes." I think to myself, I would, but I don't have my W2 and other necessary tax forms with me right now. I won't do it.
All I'm saying is that it works... for pizza.

Jack's Friend, Zeke

2009-02-19T13:47:00.006-07:00

Yesterday, Jack got to meet his friend, Zeke, who came all the way from Texas to visit. They had a great time lying on the blanket and eating and sleeping. What a fun way to spend an afternoon. We are looking forward to the time when Zeke and his mom Katie move to Utah so we can have some real adventures. Here are a few pics of the babies' first play-date.

Happy Valentines Day

2009-02-14T12:15:00.004-07:00

Happy Valentines Day to all you love birds out there. I don't get out much anymore and haven't had a chance to go get Michael a V-day gift, so I made him a homemade card out of pictures, construction paper, and glue. It's been a while since I've done anything like that. It was kind of fun and reminded me what it was like to be in the fifth grade again... making cards that say "I have a crush on you." If you haven't done something like this lately, I highly recommend that you do.

Baby Jack

2009-02-02T17:16:00.001-07:00

Well, we got baby Jack home safe and sound. We are learning a lot about how to care for a baby. Sleepless nights are quite an adjustment, but I'm getting through them. He is a very good baby. Here are a few pics of his first days at home.

It's Here...For Real

2009-01-24T14:51:00.008-07:00

Baby Jack Michael arrived Thursday night, January 22 at 6:49 p.m. He is 6 lbs. 14 oz., 19 inches long and oh, so sweet. He is a healthy, happy baby who hasn't cried much so far. He has his dad's personality: calm and mellow. He sleeps and eats, but mostly sleeps, which is what he is doing right now. We get to take him home from the hospital tonight, then the real fun begins. Here are some pics of our time here.

It's Here...

2009-01-21T10:05:00.001-07:00

My due date is here... and I'm still pregnant.

Linus

2009-01-12T15:32:00.002-07:00

Our niece, Darci (4 years old) is very excited about the impending birth of her cousin. During the month of October, after watching the Charlie Brown Halloween movie she started asking us, "Won't you call your baby's name Linus?" Since then, every time the baby comes up, she tells us that we should name him Linus. The other day, she told me, "Yeah, Jack is a cute name, but Linus is better." Her mom sent me a text when I was at work last week that said Darci had been crying. When she asked her what was wrong, she replied, "Mike and Nat won't name their baby Linus." We are so sorry to disappoint.

Pregnancy Update

2009-01-12T15:10:00.003-07:00

Several people have asked questions about my baby in the comments lately. I try not to post too much about my pregnancy because I don't want to complain, but you asked... Here is what's going on:
I am due in 9 days (January 21st). I am having a baby boy and we do not know what we are going to name him for sure, although we are leaning heavily toward Jack. If anyone has any suggestions on names, we are looking and listening. I am fat and uncomfortable and hope that he comes soon just so I can breathe again. My hands and feet are swollen and I get frequent headaches. I can only sleep a few hours at a time (better get used to it) even with the assistance of a sleep aid. My clothing no longer fits... even the "fat scrubs" I bought to wear to work are getting tight around my belly. I have painful varicose veins. I also have ligament pain and frequently end up limping instead of walking.
I am really looking forward to the delivery. I am ready for different kinds of pain. I am excited to meet our little guy and know that all this discomfort will be worth it. We have everything we need set up in his nursery and sometimes I go in there and daydream about how sweet he'll be. I especially love to look at his snowsuit. So stay tuned for pics of the new baby...He's coming soon (I hope).

Happy New Year

2009-01-07T14:52:00.005-07:00

I've been thinking about whether or not I care to try to improve myself this year with a new year's resolution. I've been wanting to set a goal, but haven't been successful in thinking of a good one that I really care about. During this time of reflection, I realized that I don't spend enough time thinking about and processing my life. There were a few years in college, when I wrote in a journal every day. By doing that, I was able to process my thoughts and feelings and really got to know myself. I would think about my conversations with people, decide whether these interactions were positive or negative, and reflect on how they affected me. I learned how to be honest with what I was feeling...that anger was usually a way of expressing hurt and that fear was the opposite of love. I remember feeling quite emotionally healthy during those years and I think it was related to writing and reflecting (not that I'm a total emotional wreck now... cut me some slack, I'm pregnant). So, in addition to learning how to be a mother, I resolve to write in my journal this year since I'm certainly not giving up sugar.

Misplaced Keys

2008-12-31T09:11:00.004-07:00

We all know the type of person that can't keep track of ANYTHING... especially his keys. Whatever he is looking for was specially placed in a spot that he "would never forget," but then he can't remember where that special place is. I am married to one of these people.

I am the type of person who rarely loses anything. I have a place for everything and I generally always put things in their assigned places. That way I don't have to think of a "special place" for anything. So you can imagine that it can be a little frustrating when things that may effect me get lost by other people :).

Last Friday, I had to work late so Michael got a ride home. Usually, we come in the garage door, where he hangs his keys on the key rack which I strategically placed there to encourage the putting away of the keys. Well, he came in through the front door, so the keys never got put away. Later that evening, we wanted to go out, so we searched the house up and down for his keys. No luck... we just used mine. Saturday, we did the search again, knowing that they must be somewhere in the house because he had used them to get in. Again, we came up with nothing. On Sunday afternoon, it was like a light-switch turned on in Michael's head and he all of the sudden got up and opened the front door. His keys were there, hanging from the dead-bolt.

EY2K5

2008-12-29T09:20:00.005-07:00

On Saturday, Michael and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. It was super romantic... We spent the day with his extended family at the annual Bird family Christmas party and then topped it off with a wonderful evening at my parents' house hanging out with my family. We had plans to go out, but being as pregnant as I am, I just didn't feel like it.

Despite the lack of actually doing anything to celebrate it, it has been a great 3 years. We have had many good times and hope to continue to do so throughout our lifetimes... only from now on, we'll get to share the fun times with our baby too. This is a collage of some of the highlights of the last 3 years:
And here are a few of the wedding:

Merry Christmas

2008-12-23T17:50:00.004-07:00

Pictures of the Bird Family trip to Temple Square. The lights were beautiful.

Merry Christmas everyone. I have pretty much fallen off the face of the blogging earth over the last month, but I wanted to wish all my friends and family who read this Happy Holidays.

Michael and I have been very busy this last month getting everything in order in our new house. In addition to our regular schedules, we've had millions of Christmas parties and a baby shower and shopping and concerts and dinners and stuff, stuff, stuff. So it's been a busy month and to be perfectly honest, I am ready for Christmas to be over.

And, the sooner Christmas is over, the sooner my baby comes. I am due 4 weeks from today. I don't know if I'm quite ready to have the baby, but I do know that I am ready to have the baby outside of my body.

So, even though I am a little bit of a Christmas Grinch, I want everyone (including myself) to have a wonderful holiday.

Lost

2008-11-26T09:55:00.003-07:00

The remote control for our DVD player is lost. A few months ago, it just disappeared and we figured it would just turn up. It hasn't. Maybe the universe is getting back at me for that mean trick I played on my old neighbors...

Several years ago, some of my college roommates and I were at a party at our neighbors' house. They were this group of guys that thought they were all that and more (alright to hang out with once in a while, but not every day kind of friends). They had this really big, expensive T.V. that was pretty much their pride an joy. I saw the remote sitting on the coffee table and thought it would be a funny joke to steal it. So I inconspicuously slipped it into my bag. I had to do a night shift that night, so I left the party early with the remote. The next day, my roommates told me that they after most of the people had cleared out, they had wanted to watch a movie. Apparently their big fancy T.V. didn't even work without the remote. Well, I didn't want to admit to my crime because they didn't think it was funny, so Brittany and I packaged up the remote and anonymously mailed it back.

Now I don't have a remote. Maybe it will arrive in the mail someday soon.

Finally...

2008-11-24T17:35:00.004-07:00

We are FINALLY into our new house. It seems like it's just been one thing after another that has prevented us from actually physically occupying the property. Our original closing date was set for November 7th. Today is the 24th and this will be our first night sleeping there (knock on wood). Lucky for us, we had an understanding landlord who let us stay in our old apartment as long as we needed to and my mom and dad let us stay with them last weekend when Questar couldn't get out there to turn on our gas because of some problem with their computers. So we got all of our stuff moved in on Thursday, but didn't want to take cold showers or freeze to death at night.
Several people commented, asking where our new home is located and other details.... It's in south Lehi. It has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and a phenomenal kitchen (at least for me... my last kitchen had approx. 2 inches of counter space). I have put all of my kitchen stuff away and still have cupboard space to spare. I am looking forward to becoming a culinary master in this kitchen, so send me all your best recipes. I think I am even going to try to make a pie before Thanksgiving (I'll let you know how that goes, or if it even happens).
We are still working on getting all of our stuff organized and put away. Our goal is to have it done by Wednesday because we have ordered new furniture and it is scheduled to be delivered then. It is definitely a work in progress, but we are so glad to finally be working on it.

Oh, by the way, I am 32 weeks pregnant. When I felt so sick, I thought the pregnancy would last an eternity. Now my due date is coming up so fast (January 21st). The baby still doesn't have a name or a car seat or a stroller or even a blanket. I need to get busy. He wiggles all the time and his little foot is wedged up in my right rib (very comfortable). Michael either has a calming effect on the baby or the baby is a tease because he absolutely will not kick for his daddy. He will be going crazy in there and Michael puts his hand on my belly... nothing. I think it's pretty funny.

Anyway, that's what's going on in the Bird world. I hope to have some more interesting posts in the future.

New House

2008-11-14T17:08:00.004-07:00

We are in the process of purchasing a new home. At first it was very exciting. We were all set to close two weeks ago, but he day before closing, we found out that the seller of the home did not actually own it yet, but would later that evening. Because of this, our loan was no good (they won't sign off on a loan that is going to someone who does not own the property). So we pushed the closing date back another week. One hour before our new closing time, we got a call saying that the loan had just been audited and that because of the same problem mentioned above, the loan was being denied. So basically, the seller is a dope. Then he tried to charge us money to extend the contract that was invalid because of him. We are not giving him any extra money and our new closing date is set for next Wednesday. What a pain. We packed up most of our house the first time we thought we were moving, so for the past two and next one week, we have been tripping over boxes, and eating poor diets. I can't wait til it actually goes through. The good news is that interest rates have dropped, so I guess a week's wait is worth it. So here is a photo of the lovely home we will be living in soon (the boat on the side of the house does not come with it... bummer :))

She looks so sweet...

2008-11-05T10:25:00.004-07:00

This is Indy. She is our family dog. Last month, Michael and I had the opportunity to dog-sit her for 10 days while my parents went on a cruise. Indy doesn't like it when her mom leaves her. She was just like a naughty little child who was acting out. She is very old (like 14 years old), so she can't hold it like she used to. Because of this, she has a bed in the laundry room (larger than your average laundry room) where she stays during the day while nobody is home. If for some reason she can't hold it in, it's much easier to clean up linoleum than carpet. Usually she's such an obedient dog, but when it was time for us to leave and we would tell her to go into the laundry room, she would look right at us and then start walking in the opposite direction. Oh, and then there was the barking in the middle of the night. Each morning around 3, we would hear barking. If I didn't get up to let her out for a minute, I would find a mess the next morning. Once while we were home, we left the bedroom door open and she went in there and peed on our bed. Michael found it when he stuck his foot in a wet bed.

The funny thing is, she is not normally like that. She is usually a good dog with an occasional accident (remember, she is 14 years old). She gets so mad when my mom leaves her. Poor little acting out dog :).

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T15:34:00.004-06:00

My baby dressed up in his first halloween costume today...

Silver Lake

2008-10-27T16:58:00.007-06:00

On Saturday, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather since it was probably our last chance to take a hike this season. Usually, our summers and falls are filled with hikes, but because morning sickness and hiking are not a good combination, we didn't get up on the peaks as much as we would have liked to.

We drove up American Fork Canyon, took our little Civic on an off-road adventure (really not that bad, just not paved), and finally got to the trail head for Silver Lake. It's about 2.5 miles up to the lake, so Michael had a breeze of a walk while the baby and I struggled up the hill (again, really not that bad, just not as easy as it once was... like when I was in shape and not growing a child in my belly). The water at the lake was pretty low and most of the trees were dead along the trail, but it was still nice to get out and enjoy the great outdoors. The picture is of Mt. Timp from the trail.

Oh, and Michael missed most of the BYU football game to hike with me. He must really care about me.

Children of Winter

2008-10-27T14:41:00.005-06:00

Last Friday evening, after having a birthday celebration dinner for my brother-in-law, Danny, Michael and I went on a hot date to the annual showing of the newest Warren Miller film, Children of Winter. The movie was pretty sweet, showing many tricks we only dream we could do and many places we only wish we could go. We also each got a day pass to the Canyons which Michael and a friend will be able to enjoy (I will not be using mine... I don't think pregnant people are supposed to ski).

I am going to miss skiing this season. We had such a good time on the slopes last year. It made winter fun. But last year we didn't have a darling baby boy, so I guess that will be our trade off. Maybe in a few years, we can teach our baby to ski...

Trail Mix

2008-10-24T10:31:00.002-06:00

I think they should change the order of the contents of trail mix. Instead of, from most to least:

1. Peanuts
2. Raisins
3. Cashews
4. Almonds
5. M&Ms

I think it should be:

1. Almonds
2. M&Ms
3. Peanuts
4. Raisins

And just leave out the cashews all together. I like dried fruit in my trail mix too. I guess I should just make my own and quit complaining about the store-bought version.

Nice People Only VA Reunion

2008-10-22T10:12:00.004-06:00

A bunch of old friends from the VA got together on Sunday morning for Brunch. It was fun to see everyone and find out what has happened to each of us since we parted our separate ways. Here is a photo of the old nice people only clan (we are missing a few more of the nice ones, but they just couldn't make it).

Update

2008-10-10T17:17:00.004-06:00

Nothing terribly interesting is happening in my life right now, so here are some of the uninteresting things going on...

I guess I could tell you that we have been house hunting. We have found some nice places in the North part of Lehi and are looking in Draper as well. Now is a great time to be a buyer, not so great if you're a seller. I will keep you updated when we decide what we're getting. Maybe I'll even throw myself a housewarming party.

We went to the Weezer concert on Tuesday. When we got there, we were lined up behind a bunch of 12 year-olds. It was the first time in my life I've ever felt old. Most of the attendees were actually adults, so as the evening went on, I began to feel young again. I think Weezer is alright, but Michael is a pretty big fan (this probably goes back to 6th or 7th grade). So Michael really liked the concert, but the baby would get mad when it got very loud. It felt like he was punching my insides.

We went to Bodyworlds 3 yesterday. It was pretty cool. We had free tickets. Admission is $22 per person, so make sure you REALLY like looking at dead people before you go and drop the cash. There was one display that I thought was exceptionally cool... The baby display. It had embryos and fetuses from 5 weeks gestation through 32 weeks. By 8 weeks it is only about 1/2 an inch long, but it looks like a real baby... amazing. The whole thing was very cool, just a little overpriced (unless you get to go for free like us).

I am getting pretty fat. This baby boy is growing fast. I wont disturb your image of a slimmer me with a photo (you would probably throw up in your mouth and I don't want you to have to search for gum or a breath mint right now). It's actually pretty exciting to watch my belly grow. The baby moves all the time. Sometimes it even makes me feel nauseated again. I'm pretty sure he is the cutest baby ever. I can't wait until we get a new house so that I can start putting his nursery together.

I think that about sums it up...

New Job

2008-09-26T14:26:00.002-06:00

Life never goes the way you plan. After Michael passed his first actuarial exam last November, we made big plans for ourselves:

He was going to get a job by February or March. We were going to re-locate to wherever it was he got that job. I was going to get a travel position which would give us a lot of extra money and free housing as long as I was working for that company. This would give us the opportunity to save, save, save, and after 6 months or so, we would have enough money for a sizable down-payment on our future home which we would move in to and live happily ever after.

Reality:

After 8 months of applying for actuarial positions all over the country, and being told that entry level jobs require "more experience," Michael got a new job as a data analyst at 1-800-Contacts (which is where he has been working for the past 2 years). It is not an actuarial position, but it is in the statistics field, which will give him the "experience" he needs. I will not be taking a travel job since we will not be moving , which takes away from my potential to save, save, save. We are looking to get into a new house pretty soon, where we hope to live happily ever after... for a little while... until we can get something better. Oh yeah, and now we are going to have a baby...

So the moral of the story is don't count on your plan. It rarely works out. The good thing about it is that a lot of times it works out better. We are very happy that Michael found a job in his field and now we will get to be close to family when the baby comes. Maybe this way is better... We'll see.

My Five

2008-09-17T13:49:00.003-06:00

Maria "tagged" me to do this a while ago. I usually don't participate in such activities (it's just not my style), but I am going to indulge just this once. Plus, I feel like I haven't had anything to write about for a while.

10 years ago:
1. I was just starting my first year of high school at dear old AF high
2. I rode to school every day with my sister, Tara, who drove a car that looked exactly like the DeLorean from Back to the Future
3. I had just gotten my braces off (after 3 long years of metal mouth and head gear at night)
4. I was playing on the soccer team for my high school. I felt pretty special because they bumped me from JV to Varsity (I didn't play much Varsity... I think they just needed an extra body)
5. I had a big crush on Avery Johnson (who later became my first kiss)

5 things on today's to do list:
1. Work
2. Make tin foil dinners and other preparations for tonight's big camping trip
3. Try to talk Michael out of going camping because it's too cold*
4. Be a good sport and go camping anyway
5. Freeze to death and wait until morning

*Normally, I am a huge fan of camping. I especially love it on warm summer nights. Unfortunately, because of my extreme nausea (which is getting better), we have been unable to camp this past summer. Michael wants to make up for it now. I struggle when it's cold. I'll be sure to take many many blankets.

5 favorite snacks:
1. Rice crispy treats. I love them so much I think I could eat a whole pan in one day.
2. Chex Muddy Buddies (I sense a cereal based theme)
3. Peaches. Late summer/early fall is my favorite fruit season.
4. Green shakes (when I 'm not pregnant)
5. Chips and Queso from Cafe Rio. If you haven't indulged in this delight, I highly recommend it. Don't do it too often or you will clog your arteries.

5 things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Start more orphanages. A few years ago, I spent 3 months volunteering in several different orphanages in Quito, Ecuador, and I fell in love with those children. There are so many children in the world who live on the streets and I would like to alleviate some of that.
2. Pay for free health clinics for the un- and under-insured in this country. I have volunteered as an RN in a free clinic here in SLC and you would not believe the need.
3. Travel. I love to travel. My first stop would be Machu Pichu. Then I'd go to Thailand. I want to see the pyramids in Egypt and the Great wall of China. Oh yeah...Stonehenge, Easter Island, Galapagos Island, Alaska, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Europe, EVERYWHERE!
4. Pay off all of my debts and the debts of my family members.
5. Hire a full time cook for my home

5 places I have lived:
1. American Fork, UT
2. Salt Lake City, UT
3. Quito, Ecuador
4. Midvale, UT
5. Back to American Fork

Baby Boy Bird!

2008-09-08T10:27:00.003-06:00

Our baby is a boy! Yea!

Millions of Peaches

2008-09-01T08:28:00.003-06:00

I am so happy that peach season has finally arrived. I have been waiting for it since last October. For several nights my dreams have been filled with beautiful, fresh, ripe peaches. I was eating them and they were delicious. When I woke up, there were no peaches to be had. So I bought some at a local fruit stand. I ate the few ripe ones, but most of them are still sitting on my table in a brown paper bag ripening.
This morning, two of my dear, dear patients brought in baskets full of ripe peaches right off their trees. I've been gorging myself all morning, and there are more coming...

San Francisco

2008-08-27T15:28:00.010-06:00

Michael and I spent this last weekend in San Francisco. Michael has been dying to see Radiohead live for pretty much his entire life, so when he heard that they were playing at the Outside Lands Festival, he forked over the cash and we had a music-filled vacation to plan.
Outside Lands put on a pretty good show. We saw plenty of great concerts including, but not limited to Radiohead, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers, Beck, Wilco, Jack Johnson, and several bands that we hadn't ever heard of (I can't remember the names off the top of my head). The selection was pretty diverse, so we never got stuck in one genre for too long. Here are a few pics of some of the shows.

We also did a little sight seeing while we were in the city. On Thursday evening, we visited and went on a tour of Alcatraz. We also spent some time at Fisherman's Warf. On Monday, we had a few hours before our flight home, so we walked through China Town and Union Square.

Eeeeewwwwww

2008-08-18T11:46:00.004-06:00

Grossest thing ever...

I am at work and need to share this because it was so awful. I just took a sip of water out of my mug and something didn't feel right in my mouth. I didn't want to swallow it, so I put my fingers in and pulled an EARWIG out of my mouth. That's the last time I'll leave the straw cover open.

Back to School

2008-08-18T07:46:00.003-06:00

This time of year brings back fond memories of the first days of many years of school. Although I am not going back to school this year, I feel like I can't get away from it. I can understand having "back to school sales" on things like notebooks, pencils and clothing, but it seems like everything is "back to school." I've seen signs for back to school camping gear (sign me up for that school), back to school video rentals, and back to school tacos. I just can't figure out what tacos have to do with going back to school. Can anybody clue me in?

It's been a while

2008-08-13T08:01:00.002-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted. This is mostly due to the fact that all I have been doing is barfing and watching T.V. Most pregnant women stop barfing 12-14 weeks into their pregnancies (and some never even feel nauseated...Kasey). I am one of the lucky 5% of women who, as my doctor so lovingly put it, holds on to my nausea and doesn't let it go.
Before actually becoming pregnant myself, I assumed that morning sickness was mild nausea that you could pretty much deal with without giving up your normal routine. Boy was I wrong. I feel like I've had the full-on flu for the last 4 months. I am on the strongest anti-nausea medication that exists and I'm still pretty much incapacitated. I am still able to work because my coworkers are understanding and on my really bad days, they help me by doing most of my work in addition to their own. Michael has been a really good wife to me through all of this, doing the cooking, cleaning, laundry, and grocery shopping.
As I read over this post, I realize that there is a good reason I haven't posted over the last couple of weeks. I am working really hard on not complaining about my illness (although the medical books swear that pregnancy is not a disease), so I apologize. But I am going to publish it anyway because it's what I've been up to.

A Lot Better than the First Year

2008-08-01T13:39:00.003-06:00

This week marks my one year anniversary of working for University of Utah Dialysis Program. It also marks my two year anniversary since I graduated from nursing school. I spent the first year of my nursing career at the VA hospital in Salt Lake City. I had been working there as a secretary 5 years prior to becoming a nurse. It's where I decided that I liked the medical field and that I wanted to pursue a career as a nurse. I still remember the night I made that decision. It was a slow night on the floor and I took a break from my homework while my friend, Michelle went over the benefits of being a nurse until she had pretty much sold me on the idea. It was good then. But the goodness didn't last.

It all started with my first bad manager, Gina.

She hated being a manager. She hated her employees. She hated being responsible. We decided that I would be starting as a nurse as soon as my temporary license came through which was supposed to come to me, personally, by mail. It hadn't come. One afternoon, she called me and asked me why I hadn't shown up for nursing orientation that morning. I explained that it was because my license hadn't come yet. She said that it had come and that I was supposed to be in orientation that very day. I again explained that nobody had called me to tell me that orientation was happening, where or when I should be there, etc. She said that it was my job to know that info (which was impossible b/c I didn't even know my license had come). Like I said, she hated being responsible.

About a month later, Gina quit. Things were good without a manager. In December, Sandy was hired as manager. We all had high hopes. She came and gave the staff a big speech about how she was into teamwork and wanted our opinions and suggestions about how the unit was run. Our high hopes were very quickly dashed to shreds. Shreds is giving it too much credit. More like burned to ashes. Under her watch, patient safety suffered and nurses sanity suffered. There were many who couldn't hack it and quit within a few weeks of the beginning or Sandy's reign of terror. There were many of us who liked our jobs and wanted to stick it out for the patients' sake (not to mention the federal benefits). We spent a lot of time with union representatives, and higher management. We wrote up reports about unsafe incidents and saved our flow sheets from our worst days. Nothing was changing. We went on like this for months. It got so bad that I was crying on my way to work each day b/c I didn't want to face the nightmare. Then I would cry on my way home because of the nightmare I had just suffered for 8-12 hours. Still we persisted in working with the union and upper management. I cut my hours back and got another job with U of U in July. One day in late August, I realized that nothing was going to change. The nightmare would remain. So I turned in my two weeks notice.

My last day was September 8, 2007. I went to talk to Sandy because I wanted to get a few things off my chest. I explained that I had loved this job in the past. I didn't want to quit. I had to in order to stay sane. I couldn't work in an environment that forced me to do a half-assed job. I was a better nurse than that. I told her that I had realized that nothing was going to change until someone died because of unsafe conditions and that I didn't want that on my conscience or my license. I was the 17th person to quit since Sandy started (in only 9 months). I don't know how many more came after me. I heard that someone did die because of unsafe patient conditions and that Sandy was fired a few months ago. I don't know for sure.

Since I quit the VA, my work life has been wonderful. My manager, Lisa, is awesome. If I have a concern, which I rarely do, she will take care of it right away. I never cry on my way to or from work. I am allowed to take my vacation time whenever I want. I'm never afraid for my patients lives (at least not related to the quality of care they are receiving). I have great hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 5:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Since the first week of working in Dialysis, I've said that it's not a forever job. But, it is exactly what I need in my life right now. The second year of nursing has definately been better than the first.

A Baby with a Cause

2008-07-23T14:00:00.001-06:00

Well, my baby is an animal rights activist. I have never been huge on meat myself, but I haven't cut it out of my diet completely... until now. My baby is only the size of a jumbo shrimp and he/she is already manipulating me and imposing it's views and practices on me ;). At least this baby has a cause that he/she believes in. You have to admire that. So if anyone has any good vegetarian recipes that don't include tofu (I've tried to like it, I really have), I'd really appreciate the help.

Grand Teton/ Yellowstone Adventure

2008-07-19T14:13:00.003-06:00

Sunday morning we packed up some gear, got in the car, and made a 6 hour journey to take my true love (Michael) to my other true love (Grand Teton National Park). We were pretty hungry when we got there, so upon arrival at our campsite at Colter Bay, we immediately lit the charcoal so we could get our tinfoil dinners cooking. We took a walk down by Jackson Lake and enjoyed our time around the campfire.

On Monday morning, we headed up to Yellowstone. We spent the entire day getting in and out of the car to see the natural wonders. We started at West Thumb where we saw beautiful geyser pools, visited an awesome waterfall at Artist's Point, enjoyed our hike at Mammoth Hot Springs, watched as Old Faithful errupted, and experienced many other little wonders along the way. We saw 3 black bears on our drive over to Mammoth. Unfortunately, I don't have a three foot zoom on my little camera, so the bear pics aren't great.

Tuesday, we spent the morning and early afternoon on a beautiful hike to Phelps Lake in Teton. This is the third time I've done this hike because I am in love with the view when I come to the lookout over the lake. I would describe it as "breath-taking," and that's not a term I use lightly :). We then drove over to another area where we did another hike to String and Leigh Lakes. We polished off the Jackson Hole experience that evening by attending the Bar J Wranglers dinner and show. If you're ever in Jackson, go to this. It's quite entertaining.

Wednesday, we got up and cought a small ferry boat across Jenny Lake then hiked to Hidden Falls and Inspiration point. We had to rush down because we had to be on time for our next adventure: white water rafting down the Snake River. This river trip wasn't quite as intense as the one in Costa Rica, but we had a great time on the rapids. We spent our last evening roasting marshmallows for smores and went for a moonlight walk by the lake.

We had a great time and found so many other things we still want to do. We'll save those things for another trip.

Local Beauty

2008-07-08T20:36:00.007-06:00

I love living so close to so many beautiful places. If I want to go up a canyon, I have at least 8 options within an hour's drive. American Fork Canyon is the closest, being only 15 minutes from my house. The down side to AF canyon is the $6 entrance fee. Despite that, last week when my friends Katie and Andrew were visiting from Kansas, we decided to go and explore Timpanogas Cave National Monument (on a guided tour). If you haven't done this, I highly recommend it. The formations inside the cave are beautiful. The picture on the right is the largest stalactite in the cave, nicknamed The Heart of Timpanogas. It's pretty cool.
Last night, we went up there again with my parents and sister and brother-in-law. We cooked delicious tinfoil dinners and smores. I love summertime.
This afternoon, Michael and I drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon. We went up to Brighton resort and did a 3 mile loop to Twin Lakes and Lake Solitude. The hike wasn't too strenuous, but I felt pretty good about it since it was my greatest physical feat in about 2 months (I've had to cut way back on exercise since I've not been well). We spent quite a lot of time skiing the area last winter and got to do a little of that on one snowy slope today, so we felt right at home. This is a picture of us at Twin Lakes.

Happy Birthday to Me

2008-06-27T08:26:00.005-06:00

On Sunday I celebrated my 25th birthday. I really wanted a road bike. When I found a really big box covered in blankets in my living room, I thought, this is it. It wasn't. But it was a pretty sweet new vacuum from Michael. I still need to try it out because I didn't feel like cleaning the house on my birthday.

My parents gave me an overnight stay in a condo in park city, so the birthday celebration continued on into Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday afternoon, we drove up to Park City, and checked into the Park Plaza. We spent the evening at the farmers' market, then headed up to Deer Valley for a free folk concert. Later, we took a dip in the hotel pool and watched a movie. On Thursday, we went out for breakfast then went to the outlet shops where Michael bought 2 shirts and I got a pair of sunglasses (and all for < $40). It was a great week-long birthday celebration.

Bob the Towing Guy

2008-06-13T13:27:00.004-06:00

I think it's high time that I share the story about Bob, the towing guy... Any account of my life would not be complete without it.

It was March 1, 2005. It was a chilly winter's day. When I returned home to my apartment after a long day of Nursing school clinical at Salt Lake Regional Hospital, I was all set to hurry down to my parent's house for a birthday party for my mom. After cleaning up and changing out of my scrubs, I went to get into my car. As I approached the driver's side door, I noticed an orange, metal boot on my tire. Huh, I thought to myself. They haven't been enforcing the parking rules for about 3 months now. Do they give no warning? I was at fault. My roommates and I had been passing around the parking decals b/c there were only 2 per apartment and we had 4 people living there and I didn't have one at the time. I had been parking in the upper lot since January and had yet to be booted, so I figured it was OK. It wasn't.

Usually a boot is accompanied by a friendly note that tells you who placed the boot, what the fine is to remove it, and how long it will be until they tow your car. Mine was just a boot... no note. I thought to myself, I wonder who I should call to get this boot removed ASAP so that I can get to my mom's birthday party. I wasn't very helpful in answering my own question, so I set out on a quest to find out who did the towing at my apartment complex. I walked down to the office, but they had weird hours and were not there. I looked at the message boards around the complex for clues, but came up with nothing. I called the HOA president to see if he knew who did the booting. He didn't. I knocked on random doors and asked if anyone in the whole entire complex knew which company was responsible for the boot on my car. I came up with nothing. Finally, I called the police. I asked if they had any ideas on how I could find out who put the boot on my car or if they could help me get it off. They couldn't. I was at my whit's end. I had already spent about 2 hours investigating and I still had nothing. Finally, one of my neighbors said that he had seen a sign in a very inconspicuous place in a dark hall that nobody ever walks down. Sure enough, the info of the towing company was on that flier. It was brown and wrinkled and I don't think anyone besides that particular neighbor had ever seen it.

I took the flier and called the number and Bob, the towing guy answered. I told him my situation and he said that it would cost me $80 to remove the boot. I tried to argue with him, telling him that he should reduce the price since he didn't leave a note and since it took me about 2&1/2 hours to get a hold of him. He said that he shouldn't have to leave a note, that I should intuitively know who the towing company in the area is. I asked him how I would know that. His real, true answer to my inquiry was, "Well I know who the towing company in your area is." That was it. I lost it and yelled into the phone, "BOB, YOU ARE THE TOWING GUY. OF COURSE YOU KNOW WHO THE TOWING COMPANY IN THE AREA IS!" I'm pretty sure that Bob was used to dealing with irate costumers because this did not even phase him. He told me that it was going to be $80 cash or he would have to come tow my car.

I don't know about you, but I don't usually have $80 cash on hand. I explained to Bob that since he wouldn't accept any other form of payment, I was going to need a ride to the ATM to get the cash since he had so kindly placed a boot on my car and I was unable to drive myself. I asked him if he would take me. He was kind of taken aback and paused before he replied, "sure, if you don't mind riding in a '59 Camaro." I assured him that I didn't. I paid him and we parted our separate ways.

And that's the story of Bob, the towing guy.

A Good Day

2008-06-12T11:47:00.004-06:00

Michael and I had a pretty good day on Tuesday. We woke up, ate some Frosted Mini Wheats, and headed out to go for a short hike. The trail head in Pleasant Grove lead us up to a waterfall. We hung out at the waterfall for a little while then drove down to a park where we ate a picnic lunch and played Frisbee. It was just a nice, relaxing day that we had to spend together. I like days like that.

Random update

2008-06-05T10:58:00.002-06:00

I feel like I haven't had a whole lot going on during the past few weeks. But thinking back, I realize that it's been a good time for me.
My sister, Tara came out to visit from Colorado. She brought her husband, Rusty and their two kiddies, Halle and Josh. We had a lot of fun hanging out with the fam while they were here. We had a couple of birthday parties (for Cole and Rusty), a few family dinners, and a couple of fun games of nerfis. Nerfis is a game made up by Rusty. You basically play the rules of volleyball, but you hit a Nerf ball with a tennis racket. Tara, Carlie, and I had a sisters day where we went for pedicures and had dinner together. It was a lot of fun to have Tara and fam visit.
My littlest brother, Cole graduated from high school last week. Congrats Cole. I am proud of you.
Michael is flying to Virginia today for a job interview tomorrow. I hope this is it. Finding a job has been a long road. Something is bound to work out, right? Good luck Michael.
Work is going great. We have recently had several new patients start coming to our clinic. I've met some really great people through my job. I really enjoy the people I work with and I couldn't ask for a better employment situation.
I think that is about it. Like I said, it feels like there hasn't been a lot going on, but having good day to day experiences is what makes life so great.

Trip to the Doctor's Office

2008-05-24T16:29:00.003-06:00

One of my favorite things to hear when I'm in a public restroom is a mother telling her small child, "Just go." The child responds, "But mama, I don't need to go." And the mother says "Yes you do." Seriously, they probably don't need to go.
I had a similar experience the other day (and more)...
The University had some extra money for health benefits at the end of last year and decided to reward us employees by covering all of our co-pays for preventative services. So naturally, I decided to take advantage of this rare opportunity to go to the doctor for free.
When I got there, I was greeted by a young female medical assistant and shown back to the exam room. She got me a form to fill out and asked me if I would give a urine sample. I had used the restroom right before I got there and didn't need to go, so I asked if she minded if I drank some water and finished the history form first. She responded by saying "Can't you just go a little bit?" I again told her that I had just gone and would need a few minutes. I guess she didn't believe me because she argued with me telling me that I could in fact probably just squeeze out a little urine. I finally had to get a little snappy. I said, "Look, I just said I don't need to go. I can't just do it on demand." It finally got through and she got me a glass of water to drink.
There's more...
As I was filling out the history, I was answering typical questions about my surgical history, heart problems, allergies, etc. When I got the the psychosocial section, one of the questions asked me if I had a history of committing suicide. If I did, would I be here filling out this form?
The medical assistant came back in and took my vital signs. For some strange reason, my blood pressure goes up when I get it taken "for real." When I take it myself at work it's fine, but every time I go into a doctor's office, it goes up. I can feel it. First she took my pulse rate and it was high. I mentioned that, judging by my heart rate, I knew that my BP would also be high. She looked at me like I was an idiot and said that heart rate and blood pressure have nothing to do with each other. They do.
As you can imagine, I was a little fed up with her at this point. I was glad to give my urine sample and see the doctor if only for the fact that I no longer had to associate with this individual.
I was wrong. Two days later, she called me with the results of my labs. I had 3 labs drawn: a lipid profile, a metabolic panel, and thyroid lab. As a Registered Nurse, I am quite familiar with what these labs are testing for and the interpretation of them. She gave me the results of my lipid panel. When I asked about the other two tests, she responded that the results had not come back yet (strange since they were all drawn in the same tube). I said, "So you've only received the results of the lipid profile?" She said "no, we don't have that back either." I responded, "So where did you get numbers for my cholesterol and triglycerides?" She told me that a lipid panel did not include cholesterol or triglycerides. It does. In fact, that's all it includes. I told her to just fax me the results. About 5 minutes later I was holding a copy of all three of my labs in my hand. And funny thing... Under the title Lipid Profile my cholesterol and triglyceride results were listed.
A few words of advice for this individual... 1. Get educated about what you are doing. As a medical assistant, you should have at least a basic knowledge of human physiology, such as that the heart rate and blood pressure are correlated. 2. If someone says they don't need to urinate, believe them. and 3. Get educated about what you are doing. If you are calling someone with lab results, have a basic knowledge about what the labs are testing for. Seriously.

Backpacking Mineral Gulch

2008-05-18T14:35:00.010-06:00

For Christmas, I got Michael a Backpack from Cabella's. Then for his birthday (which happened to be the same day as the REI anniversary sale), I got him a sleeping bag, a camping stove, two thermarest pads (ok, one was for me), a tent, and some camping cookware. At this point he was all set for a backpacking adventure.

Last Monday evening, we did a little online research on backpacking destinations, and we headed out for Mineral Gulch on Tuesday morning. Mineral Gulch is just East of Zion National Park. We started hiking in the afternoon and set up camp about 7.5 miles later. After we had pitched our tent, I reached into my pack to get out my fleece. It was soaked. Turns out that the valve of my 3 liter camel back pouch somehow popped open while we were setting up camp. All of my warm clothes were soaked and I had lost about 3/4 of the water I had brought to sustain my life for the next 2 days. Luckily, we had brought some emergency water purifier tablets along and there was some water about a mile away. So the next morning, we woke up and started walking to find the Indian Pictographs that we had hiked down here to see. We walked about two miles out to a really beautiful section of narrows when we figured out that we had missed the confluence that we were supposed to turn at. So we went back to camp, ate lunch, packed up, and started backtracking yesterday's trail. We found the confluence about 1.5 miles away. We had totally missed it the day before. At this point, we filled a bottle of water to treat, ditched our packs, and headed up the wash in search of the pictographs.

We never found the pictographs. We did find 7-arch, though, at the end of the trail where these pictographs supposedly were. We searched and searched for the pictographs, bushwhacking along the base of the cliffs, to no avail.

We decided to hike a few miles back toward the trail head and set up camp for one last night before heading home. A couple of miles later, we ran out of regular water and were forced to drink the emergency purified water. It was so gross that it made us dry-heave. We decided that we would rather hike extra miles that night than drink that nasty water for another day. So after about 18 miles of hiking (7.5 with 50 lb. packs on our backs), we finally reached our car. We were both so exhausted and dehydrated. We headed straight for the nearest gas station and immediately drank $6 worth of Gatorade. We also checked into the nearest hotel when we determined that our legs hurt too much to drive for 4 hours.

We had a great time, but it would have been a lot better if I would not have lost my water.

Tulips

2008-05-11T15:21:00.013-06:00

I've continues to practice drawing over the past few weeks. I'm on the 4th chapter of my teach yourself to draw book and I still have a lot to teach myself. I'm still working on drawing recognizable objects and sometimes that is a struggle. I won't post my failures, although there have been many.

My sister-in-law, Natalie planted a bunch of tulips in our front yard and they look beautiful. The other day, I decided to go out there and attempt to draw a couple of them. These are my efforts:

Stolen Cheesecake

2008-05-02T13:59:00.006-06:00

A few years ago, Katie, Barbie, and I went to Disneyland. On our way home from California, we stopped in Las Vegas to see our friend Jen...

Anytime we stop in Las Vegas to see Jen, we go the the Cheesecake Factory for dinner (mind you, this happened before there was a Cheesecake Factory in Utah). We were EXTREMELY hungry and it seemed like our food would never be ready. The people at the table next to us had ordered one really big piece of cheesecake and only eaten about 2 bites before they left. As the four of us eyed what was left of that large and delicious slice of chocolate cheesecake, we knew what had to be done... Jen was the one to present the dare. Katie carried it out, and we'd finished off dessert long before our meal arrived.

Anyone else have a random funny memory?

What Happened to Common Sense?

2008-04-29T09:25:00.005-06:00

To me it seems that the number of interactions I am having with people who possess common sense is continually decreasing. Some experiences of late:

I am managing the clinic I work at while the real manager is on maternity leave. It's a small clinic, so right now, there are only 4 employees. Me, two techs, and a social worker. I get to work bright and early one morning (5:45 a.m.) and strangely, I am alone. I think oh... my coworkers must be running a little late this morning, so I go about starting to set up for the day and I give both of the techs a call. Neither one answers. At 6:00, the first patient gets there. I can't do anything because there has to be at least two employees present in order to do any patient care. I decide to check the company voice mail while I wait. There are two messages. One from each tech saying that he is too sick to come to work today. Lack of common sense: don't call in sick to an answering machine. Call in sick to a real person (preferably the person who is currently in charge) so that they can find someone to cover your shift.

Two weeks later, after I had given explicit instructions to call my cell phone directly if they couldn't make it to work for any reason, it happened again. I arrived at work and I was alone. Again I tried to call both of them repeatedly. No answer. I called another clinic in Provo and they sent me a tech. Two hours later, one of the techs calls me and tells me that he had sent the other tech a text message telling him that he was sick and couldn't come to work. About a half hour later, the other tech calls and says that he forgot to turn on his cell phone/alarm clock last night. He never got the text from the other employee and didn't wake up on time. Lack of common sense: don't call in sick by texting your fellow tech. Call in sick to the person in charge. Make sure your alarm clock is turned on before you go to bed.

I went to Dillard's to get my sister a birthday present. I found a shirt that I thought she would like, but you never know, so I asked the cashier to print me a gift receipt. She just looked at me blankly and says "I don't know how." Lack of common sense: If you work at a store in customer service, help the customer. If you don't know how to help, find someone who does. So I say, "Can you find someone who does know how?" She looks at me and says, "Yeah, I guess." She makes a phone call and within about 30 seconds, I have my gift receipt.

One night, my husband and I decide to grab an unhealthy meal of burgers, fries, and ice cream. We go to this local place and order to go. This place usually takes about 15 min to get your food out to you. The girl behind the counter takes our order then immediately makes our ice cream cones and lets them sit out on the counter and melt while our food is cooking. Lack of common sense: If it has potential to melt, don't prepare it first, prepare it last.

This happened a few years ago, but I think it's my favorite experience with the lack of common sense. I was living in Quito, Ecuador volunteering in orphanages. I lived with a bunch of girls who were doing the same thing. I was in charge of doing all the shopping for the house. I had just gone to the produce stand and bought a bunch of food. I was in the process of washing it with diluted bleach (we didn't want to get parasites). One girl came in and offered to help me. I was glad to have some help until she asked this question... "So, like do we wash the fruit or dry it first?" I just looked at her. I couldn't continue the interaction. I had to leave the room.

Seriously, what happened to common sense? I know it's out there somewhere...

Ben Folds Live

2008-04-24T14:52:00.007-06:00

For many years, I have been a fan of Ben Folds (and his five...before they broke up). My friend Scott introduced me to his music sometime in high school. But up until last night, I hadn't had a chance to see him preform live. It was awesome. He played some of my favorites: Fred Jones Part II, Rockin' the Suburbs, Kate, Annie waits... Great tunes! The concert was at Saltair. This was the first time I've been to that venue... not my favorite. Part of the problem is that Anna and I both left our wallets home so we didn't have our IDs to get into the bar where there was a significantly better view. So we were stuck in the middle of big crowd of people trying to see over the tall guy in the gray shirt-hate him. After a while, we moved to the back on the side, where we could see quite a bit better. We had a great time. Ben puts on a good show. Oh yeah, and he threw his stool at the piano at the end. I loved that.

Before the concert, we met Anna and Peter and at Pete's request, went out for sushi. This was a first for Michael and Anna. I had sushi once with an old man a few years ago. Pete ordered everything for us because the rest of us didn't really know what to order. I didn't love it, didn't hate it. But it was a fun experience.

Costa Rica Love

2008-04-19T08:57:00.021-06:00

Well, the big trip is over. A week in Costa Rica wasn't nearly enough. We went to three places: Arenal Volcano area, Monteverde cloud forest, and Manuel Antonio national park and beach. I'll give a brief synopsis of the trip.
We arrived in San Jose at 5:25 a.m and met Arnufal, our driver who took us to our hotel in Arenal (a 3 hour drive). We were exhausted from flying all night, so after breakfast, we crashed for a few hours and woke up just in time to meet our guide for horseback riding. We rode to the beautiful La Fortuna Falls.

Later that evening, we went to Tabacon Hot Springs. This is an amazing river that is heated by the volcano. It is warmer than a hot tub in some places.

The next morning we got up early and headed for the Pacuare River where we went white water rafting. It was a blast. There were class III and IV rapids.

That evening we drove to the observatory lodge and watched the fiery magma rocks roll off the top of the volcano while we ate dinner. Unfortunately, my camera is not good enough to capture a great night photo of this, so here's a pic of the volcano in the daytime.

The next morning we headed for Monteverde via a boat ride across Arenal Lake and the a long drive in a van on a winding dirt road. That day, we went and hiked around Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. We spotted a white faced monkey on one of our hikes, and listened as wild boars talked to each other (they sounded mean).

The next day we went on a zip line canopy tour (over 2 miles of zip lines). Then we walked through the canopy on hanging bridges that were about 150-200 feet tall.

Later that day, we went to the serpentarium. I hate snakes, but I have an unhealthy fascination with them. The serpentarium featured only snakes that are native to Costa Rica... a lot of vipers. There were also a few poisonous dart frogs...very cool.

The next day, we took another drive on that winding dirt road to get out of Monteverde. We drove another 3 hours to the Pacific coast. We stayed in a town called Quepos, about a 5 minute bus ride from Manuel Antonio National park. We spent Sunday just hanging out on the beach and playing in the ocean until sunset.

The next day we went for a coastal kayaking tour to a beautiful beach where we snorkeled. We were going to go on another tour of a mangrove forest later in the evening, but the tide was too high, so the tour was not running, so we just hung out in the town of Quepos.

Our last real day was spent in Manuel Antonio National Park. We hiked around and spotted wildlife. A lot of Howler Monkeys, sloths, lizards, and iguanas. We hit the beach for one last hour then headed back to San Jose. On our way, we crossed the crocodile bridge... a ton of crocs just hang out under this bridge all of the time.

That was it. We ate dinner in San Jose, went to bed, woke up at 3:30 and got on the airplane headed for Denver at 6:00 a.m. It was a great trip. We did so much, but there is so much we didn't do. Maybe we'll go back someday. PURA VIDA!

An End to Limbo?

2008-03-27T20:51:00.002-06:00

The last year of my life has not been exactly what I'd had in mind before it started. You see, at this time last year, Michael was about to graduate from BYU with a degree in Actuarial Sciences. Shortly thereafter, he was going to take and pass the first Actuarial exam, and get a great job on the northwest coast. I was going to get a great travel job in the same city and we were going to live rent free for 3-6 months (travel nurses get free housing), save-save-save- and buy a house where we would live happily ever after.

Didn't happen... We are still living in a basement apartment in American Fork, UT. Michael did graduate from BYU with a degree in Actuarial Sciences last April, but the rest is yet to work out. He is employed at 1-800 Contacts and I am working at a Dialysis Clinic. We are NOT living rent-free. Michael did pass the exam in November and is currently in the process of applying for a job. We are learning that it is not easy to get a job if you are not a nurse. Entry level positions are the hardest to get because the experience field on the resume is basically blank. Not to mention having to send applications via email. Oh, and there's that economic recession (shhhhh, don't tell Pres. Bush, he doesn't know). So needless to say, this is taking longer than we thought it would.

It might sound like I am complaining... I'm not (Although 2 months ago I was). It has been a lot of fun to have so much time to spend together and to live so close to both of our families. I know someday we will look back on these responsibility-free days and wish we could have them back.

It's just that for a lot of this year, it's felt like we've been living in a state of limbo. Should we buy tickets to that concert? I don't know... Will he have a job by then? If he does, we won't be around to use them. Should we take that vacation we've been wanting to go on? I don't know... Will he have a job by then? Which airport should we fly out of? I don't know... Where will we live by then?

So, about a month ago, I decided that we had to get out of limbo and just start living our lives. We bought those concert tickets (Ben Folds, April 23, 2008, SLC) and we planned that trip (Costa Rica, April 8-16 2008- flight departs out of SLC). The funny thing is that since we've done this, Michael has had 3 companies call him wanting to interview him. One in California, one in Texas, and one in Illinois.

So, is there an end to Limbo? I don't know yet, but things are looking up. I'll let you know after we get back from Costa Rica :)

New Hobby

2008-03-20T18:26:00.020-06:00

For many years, I've wanted to learn how to draw. A few years ago, when I was in Ecuador, my friend Ashlee lent me her "teach yourself to draw" book. I learned how to draw basic shapes such as cubes, cones, and cylinders. Once, I even drew a feather, but I didn't do much with it.

Then nursing school happened... no time to learn to draw.

Then the awful nursing job at VA happened... too stressed/depressed to care.

Then I quit that awful job and started working at my current job... University of Utah Dialysis Program... ahhhhhhhh. It is a lovely job. I only work three days a week, Mon, Wed, Fri. What should I do with those other four days? Tues: ski, Sun: church, Sat and Thurs: DRAW (among other things).

About 6 weeks ago I bought my very own "teach yourself to draw book" called Drawing for the Utter and Absolute Beginner. Above are my first two drawings which were an assignment in the book. Since then, I've been practicing by drawing some household items. I have a long way to go, but at least I'm on my way. Here are some of the household items I've done:

Weekend Getaway to Bryce Canyon National Park

2008-03-16T16:51:00.023-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, we were feeling the travel bug. We couldn't really go anywhere for more than a weekend because I can't get work off because my manager is on maternity leave, so we decided to go on a little mini trip to Bryce Canyon National Park. We left Friday after work, met my sister Carlie and husband Danny in Lindon and started driving. After 4 hours including a stop at the fine establishement of Arby's (I had the roast beef), we arrived at Ruby's Inn where we crashed for the night. Saturday morning, we got up and went on a 7 mile hike around the park. It was fun hiking in the snow, although we all took a few spills on the trail when our feet would get stuck in knee-deep snow. After the hike, we drove to the scenic town of Tropic, Utah where we dined at the General Store. We wanted to go see Grosvener Arch (Michael had been there before and knew how to get there) so we drove to Kodachrome Basin State Park where this arch was supposedly located. Well, it wasn't there, so we ended up visiting Chimney Rock. On our way out of $6 visit to a rock, we asked the park ranger where the arch actually was. He told us (it wasn't too far off), but we couldn't get there because we needed a truck to drive through the muddy river that crossed the dirt road that led to the arch. We had plans to do some more hiking on Sunday, but we woke up to a blizzard. So we checked out of the hotel, had Sunday brunch and headed home.

The Fast

2008-03-04T09:35:00.002-07:00

Last week I completed a 5 day juice fast. My purpose in doing this was to be more conscious of what foods were going into my body. I have tried fasts before and usually (not always) give up at the end of the second day because I am so consumed by hunger. This time was different. I decided to take it one day at a time. I would finish one day and if I felt like I could keep going another day, I would. The first two days were the hardest. Michael helped me get through these days by fasting with me. We pretty much just stayed away from food and kept busy. Day three was a breeze. I didn't even want food. I had great energy and I just felt really good. Day four was great until the evening. I really wanted to eat, but the desire to hold out for one more day was greater than my desire for food. The fifth day, all I could think about was protein. I was craving chicken and nuts. My favorite craving was for Lunchables... I don't know when the last time I had Lunchables was, maybe fifth grade, but the meat and cheese were very alluring.

So the juice fast was comprised of fresh vegetable and fruit juice that I would put through my juicer when it was time for a "meal." My favorite juice was a pineapple-orange-strawberry mix and the worst was anything with celery. I took a picture of all the fruits/veggies before I started the fast. This amount of food only lasted me three days. I had to go back for more on the morning of the fourth day.

My greatest reward from this fast is that I haven't had a single headache since I started. I usually get really bad headaches 4-5 days out of the week. I had no refined sugar for over a week and limited amounts since then. I don't know for sure, but I think it was sugar giving me the headaches. I am also more conscious of what I put in my body. Portion sizes have decreased significantly as I listen to my body telling me when to stop. I've also had a desire to eat much healthier foods. I'm glad I did this and I'm glad it's over.

Snowshoes

2008-02-26T19:00:00.003-07:00

We tried something new (well technically for the second time) this weekend... snowshoeing. It was so much fun. Hiking is something we miss doing in the cold, winter months. Michael's workplace, 1800-contacts, hosted an outing up to doughnut falls. This is a picture of us at the top of the falls. We walked over the snow where the river runs. As you can see, the falls are snowed over in the winter. We had a good time and hope to try it again soon.

T.V. unplugged...

2008-02-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

We are officially sick of television. On Monday, we unplugged our T.V. and won't be plugging it back in until further notice. Although the winter months have been a little boring, we've learned that T.V. is not the answer. Since unplugging, we've found other more productive ways to spend our evenings... Reading, cooking for and spending time with family, yoga, basketball, going out to a movie, drawing, guitar playing, etc.

SKI UTAH

2008-02-19T22:25:00.000-07:00

We have been skiing each and every Tuesday this season. Our resort of choice is Solitude. So far this winter, we've ridden 89,524 vertical feet on the lifts. We've been lucky to have had so many weekend storms. Up until last week, we've had fresh powder every single time we've been up on the slopes. It has been a great way to spend the winter. Today, we saw 2 moose on our drive up there. Last week, there were 3 of them in the exact same spot.

First-time Bloggers

2008-02-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

As we make our first attempt at blogging, we're just sitting here on our love sack, watching an old 60's flick--Lawrence of Arabia, eating out of an 11 lb. bag of pistachios that we bought at Costco earlier today. We hope that this will be a fun way to keep in touch with friends and family, and record some of our good times, experiences, trips, thoughts, etc.