See ya BYU

PS: Brad has his Bachelors in Exercise Science!!! Yay. I'm so proud of him. Now he just has to find a job, he will walk in April, and we are both done with good ol BYU.

Ping, you qualify for a Miracle!

So, my work is changing our insurance to a high deductible plan. Yuck, that's like death to a diabetic. Luckily they gave us lots of deductible options, but still, to have to fork out $1500 before my insurance will pay for anything, well, it just sucks.

After learning this, I started to think about things to do to prepare. Work told us to save some money. And yes, we are also going to have an HSA which will help...but I need things immediately all the time. So since insurance unfortunately won't let me stockpile on insulin, test strips, and pump supplies, I started to think what

I could do.

That's when I realized that my pump's warranty is WAY expired. I called Animas (my insulin pump manufacturers) and they told me that the warranty actually expired in 2008. Holy cow! For those who know me well or have lived with me, then you would know that I have been through a few pumps (well 5) in 6 years. My first pump broke when I accidentely hit it against my bed frame. The second pump got water under the screen somehow (the pump is waterproof). The third pump had some malfunction so the screen was not working (huge freak out moment my freshman year, specially since I was away from home). My fourth pump, I think that was because the enter button stopped working. And my fifth pump, I think it had a bad crack in it. The last pump replacement was in 2008, I guess right before the warranty expired. So this last pump had lasted me for over 2 years!

And it's still going strong. Impressive for my track history.

However, with an expired warranty, that means the next time my pump breaks, I have to buy a whole new pump. And guess what, pumps aren't cheap. So that's when I decided that I needed to hurry and get a new pump before next year, when I would have to pay $1500 and then 20% (where right now I only pay 20%). So I kicked it into high gear. Problem was that I had less than 2 months to pick a pump, get authorization from my insurance, and get the pump. From previous posts, you all know how indecisive I am.

So long story short, after reading up about all these different pumps, looking at customer reviews, I decided to get the newest Anima

s pump, called the One Touch Ping. Since I got my pump 6 years ago, technology has evolved. Awesome right. So all pumps "talk" with a blood glucose meter. This means that when I check my blood sugar, my meter tells my pump what it is so my pump can automatically correct it. Cool beans. It's all to help make the pump more like what a normal working body does. Sweet, cept my insurance does not pay for the One Touch strips, but that's a different story.

So I picked a pump, insurance approved it, and I was told that I would be responsible for $1020. Well compared to the total cost of $8500 (which is more than my new Civic is worth), $1020 isn't too bad. But with our current circumstances of Christmas, Brad graduating and trying to find a job, my typical expenses, well $1020 is a lot o

f money. Then, my miracle came. I was told that Animas has a trade program, where my old pump model could qualify me for a $700 credit. So they ran the serial number, and I did! So instead of paying $1020, we only have to pay $320 for a brand new blue pump! That was the best news ever!

Well after my wonderfully long story, point is, I have a new pump, it is navy blue just like my civic, and it came with a new meter, and I am blessed to only have to pay $320. Miracles do happen. Brad and I are both very happy and now I just need to name my pump (after the first two pumps broke, I decided that naming them might help them to last longer :) I have had Alfred, Donald, and Herbert. So I dunno, Hugo sounds pretty good, but we will see.

I quit!

Well, I wish I could say that. Dang diabetes, it ruins everything.

I just had one of those days. One of the girls I worked with called in (second time this week someone has done that). What did that mean for me, that I had to do it all alone. Granted, Paige helped out, but when you aren't an MA, you can only do so much. Oh my goodness, it was madness. The patient questions kept stock piling on my desk and I literally was running down the hall. At one time I had to clean the EMG room, transfer data, room the next EMG and room a new patient and pull a DR report, all at the SAME time. It was madness. I can't move fast enough to do all that and Paige couldn't do it. I wanted to scream so bad. I should have gotten paid double for today cause one person cannot do 2 peoples jobs.

So my head hurts like no other, for the second time this week I didn't get a lunch, and I'm fed up with it all. This is madness and it needs to end. How many times do I need medical people to tell me i'm stressed.

At my dentist check up, the dentist told me that my teeth were great, but he saw evidence that i was grinding. He looked at me and told me that I didn't look like a person who would be stressed. I wanted to laugh.

Every massage, whatever girl was working my back would tell me, "I can't believe how tight your back is!"

The chiropractor kept asking me if anything at work or home involved heavy lifting that would aggravate my back cause I had a HUGE knot on my shoulder. I told him I didn't lift anything heavy, work was just stressful. "I'll say, this is a HUGE stress knot!"

My hair is falling out, my face is breaking out, and I dream about work. I'm tired, worn out, and my body can't handle it anymore. I just want to throw the towel in.

But I can't. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place.

On the up side, Mandy will be back Monday and I only have 7 more work days, then it's christmas vacay/craziness.

Happy Holidays

Welp, I have learned that having a dark colored car means it always looks dirty. I thought white was bad, but this is about the same, at least cause we park in the open and snow is white. Poor Honda.

As for exciting things, Brad and I have officially been married for 3 years! Yay! For our anniverary we went to the Anniversary Inn again (cause last year was so much fun). We stayed in the Bridal Veil Falls room. It was really pretty, unfortunately the camera was forgotten, so no pictures. I was a little concerned about the weather cause everyone was saying that it was going to be a big blizzard. I kinda freaked out and almost wanted to cancel the whole thing cause I didn't want to get stuck in SLC, especially since my little sister was in town staying with us for Thanksgiving. Luckily, Brad does not fear snow, so he laughed at me being ridiculous and we went. Of course, the "blizzard" turned out to be just light snow mixed with a lot of wind and was no big deal at all. But, we got to eat at an almost empty Tucanos because of it :)

The week of Thanksgiving was an adventure. My little sister, Robyn, came down from BYU-I to spend Thanksgiving with us. Awesome. So here is how the week went:

Monday: we saw Harry Potter in IMAX! That was awesome!

Tuesday: Brad and I went to Tucanos and the Anniversary Inn

Wednesday: I made pumpkin pie and cranberry sause, we all did a puzzle, and just hung out

Thursday: Thanksgiving. I learned that Thanksgiving is stressful because everything has to be cooked at relatively the SAME time. Frustrating for me. My first attempt at mashed potatos was not perfect, but it went okay and the ham was delicious! We also watched Toy Story 3 (while waiting for everything to cook) and then The Back Up Plan after dinner. Love Toy Story and did not love Back Up Plan.

Friday: Brad and Robyn woke up early and went Black Friday shopping. Brad and I went to breakfast while Robyn hung out with a friend. Then all three of us tried to get a few things (and I thought I was going to die in JCPennys. How, from being "trampeded". Yup I made a new word, it means trampled in a stampede. I thought it was pretty ingenious, even if it was a total mistake on my part. So needless to say, our shopping didn't last long, cause we went home to the refuge of a quiet apartment.

Saturday: We saw Tangeled! So cute! I love that Disney is reverting back to the old ways of movies! Yes, I mainly wanted to see it because Chuck (Zachari Levi) was in it, but the commericials also looked cute. The funny part was Brad listening to the BYU Utah game on his ipod while waiting for the movie to start. Boo to the refs, that's what I got to say. But whatever, blue is the best color ever and I love cougars. Plus, you gotta love it when a guy's nickname is Juice. Haha, can I just say that I'm so glad football is over! (I told Brad that I was glad this was the last year we were going to college football games and he didn't like that. He loves the game/atmosphere. Meanwhile, I have a hard time liking a game that takes 4 hours to watch 1 hour of play. Dumb. But I am glad that BYU's team really came together. It started out rough/really bad, but no one can deny the fact that BYU got better. K, I'm done.

Sunday: We drove Robyn up to SLC to catch her shuttle back to Idaho in the storm.

Yup, so we watched a lot of movies, did a few puzzles (3) and had a lot of fun. Now, I can listen to christmas music! Yay! I love Christmas, I just don't love living in the snow :(

Fence Sitting

So, I have always been an indecisive person. I have a hard time picking between things and making up my mind constantly. Just ask Brad. He will ask me what I want to eat and 98% of the time, I can't tell him and ask him to pick. So Brad has made it his mission in life to turn me into a decisive person (good luck!) Well, with this whole car crash fiasco, I have had a lot of decisions to make.

So with our car, as it was considered a total loss, State Farm told me that we could turn the car over to them and receive a check for the worth of our wonderful car, or we could keep the car and they would give us less money (as it would be considered a salvage vehicle). Big decision basically. Do we keep the car we love and fix it ourselves and hope the money we receive pays for everything...or do we turn the car over and buy a new one (resulting in a loan).

So we weighed the options. And had a few different collision repair places and got different opinions and assessments of the damage. We also started looking at different cars. Now our Escort is a 99 with just barely 100K miles on it. For the worth of our vehicle, the only cars available are old, beaten cars with at least 150k miles on then. Yuck. So thats when we started looking for a little more pricely vehicles (by we I mean Brad). Brad figured out that we could get a good car in the 5k - 6k range, compared to the 3.5k the insurance would give us for our car.

So then Brad left it to me. We drove nice cars, found a nice one, were approved for a loan with a low APR...but it was all my decision. My dad thought we should keep the car, Brad thought we should get a new one, but what did I want? Good question.

I love our Escort. Its been a good car, we have only had to fix minor things, and my grandpa gave it to us. So sentimental value is pretty high. However, I was a little worried about the cost of having to fix it and all sorts of issues that could happen if I got hit again. This is when Brad started calling me the fence sitter. After much thought, discussions, prayers, and mechanics telling us it would be better to just get a new car, I decided to give our car up. So we found a good little civic in our price range and decided to get it. So this morning, the plan was for Brad to turn in our car and buy the new car. Then I started talking about how much I would miss the ford and how comfy the seats are (which they are really comfy and not stiff). Needless to say, I got the look and Brad told me I needed to get off the fence and make a decision.

Well we turned our car in. So I did pick a side. And we have a nice new blue '03 Honda Civic with 101K miles on it. And we can have it all paid off in a year. We both feel good about it. But I will still miss the Escort. Afterall it was my first car given to me by my late grandpa. But hopefully this Honda will prove to be fabulous just like we think and I will learn to love it too. I just hate making decisions still :( Brad's favorite part of this whole story was when he called today to tell me to go in and sign the loan, and I said "Well, I will try and find someone to take me". It must be a deep psychological error of fence sitting, cause I had every intention of finding someone and I did cause I didn't want to have to walk home.

My Traffic Cam spotlight

So, I never have any exciting news about life to talk about, until yesterday. I should be excited right? Well, everyone wants to be famous and be noticed (supposedly) and I had my shining moment yesterday morning. Ready for the story:

I was driving to work and had just merged on to the freeway from the Provo Center Street on-ramp. Just as I was trying to speed up, I noticed brake lights ahead, so I slowed down. "Wierd, maybe I should change lanes cause I don't want to be stuck in traffic and be late to work". No sooner had I thought this when I realized the car in front of me had come to a complete stop. So I slammed on my brakes and stopped just 1-2 feet behind the car. Right when I'm thinking "Thank goodness", I am slammed forward. The car behind me apparently was not paying attention to brake lights and crashed right into me. Luckily, I still had my foot on the brake pedal, so I still didn't hit the car in front of me, however, my car was not so lucky.

The first thing I noticed was that the stereo had completely come out of the dash and was hanging. The music was still playing, so I new it was okay, but it still freaked me out. So I popped the stereo back in. Then I got out of my car and called Brad. Now I should mention that due to all of the I-15 construction, there is no shoulder to the freeway, so we all tried to pull over as best we could in the 1 foot space to the side of the right lane, but basically we blocked the lane. So I'm on the phone with Brad telling him that i was hit and everything, and all the other girls from the other 2 cars are on their phones, when I realize that my glasses are not on my face. I freak out and start searching the car cause I was worried that they had flown off and hit something and thereby been damaged. Luckily I found them on the carpet under the steering wheel. Thank goodness. I walked around my good like Ford Escort and checked the front, and saw that I had no damage there and affirmed with the girl in front of me that I had not hit her. Then I walked to the rear and saw the damage. My bumper was caved in/no-existent any more. I could see pieces of it along the freeway. The license plate was hanging on pretty good still as one screw was still very much intact to some metal. I then text my manager and told her that I was in an accident and would be late.

So the girl who hit me tells me that she thinks its all her fault cause her brakes don't really work. I wanted to yell, "Then what are you doing driving! Seriously!" My estimation is that she was going at least 45 mph when she hit me. Brad asked me over the phone if I was okay or hurt. I only noticed that my sacrolumbar was sore (low back). The girl who hit me called 911 and within a few minutes, the high patrol was there. They numbered our cars by the order we were all in. Some how 2 other cars were involved. One was completely crunched, so I think she might have hit the concrete barrier when she tried to stop and not hit all of us. The other car, well i have no idea, she looked fine. So after we were all number, the UHPs had us back up and drive into the closed off part of the road that is being worked on. Luckily our accident was right next to this, so I only had to back up a few feet and then they moved cones for us to get over and off the freeway.

After we are all moved, the UHP officers start talking to all us and asking what happened. They then had each of us write down our information and statements and they took all of our license, registration and insurance info. After all this, the UHP officer working with me told me to sit in my car while he filed the report. This is when I found out the the girl's car who had been in front of me, had stopped working all of a sudden, which is why she had come to a complete stop. Her car was working now, but they decided to tow it anyways so that wouldn't happen again. As her car was not affected at all, she was good to go. Some EMTs came and spoke with all of us. After I assured them that I was fine and would just go to work to have my physical therapist look at me, they left me alone.

So this morning was not exactly warm, so I'm just sitting in my car freezing, when finally I get out and find my UHP office assigned to me. He hands me a piece of paper with my information and the girl who hit me's information on it. He told me that he gave her a citation and that he filed a report. This was all stated on the handy dandy paper. He told me that I could just call her insurance and with all this information and get the details of repair worked out with them. He then told the girl who hit me the same thing but that she should contact her insurance, not mine. After all the cars that needed to be towed were moved, the UHPs stopped some traffic at the onramp and let us get back on the freeway.

I got to work and Roger, my PT, looked me over and did some tests to determine that I had no neurological damage. By now, it had been an hour and a half since the accident, so I was starting to notice a little more pain. He told me that the adrenaline was wearing off, so I would really start feeling sore and that it would last for 4-6 weeks! I laughed cause I thought he was joking, but he wasn't. He told me that massage, heat, and advil were the best things to help. I also spoke briefly with Dr. Ockey and he said that same things. Great! So as I'm working, I am getting sorer. It gets to the point where my whole spine hurts. And the longer into the day, the worse it got. Plus, my greatest pain region kept changing. Where it had first been my low back, it was then my midback and this morning it was my back that was killing me. But, Roger did give me a tens unit to help. A tens unit has electrodes that you stick on the muscle that is bothering you. It then sends like electrical impulses/shocks, to that area(s) and this helps to relax the muscle.

During the whole accident and high patrol stuff, I was talking with Brad and he got online and told me that he could see me online from the traffic cam. Of course, traffic built up at the accident spot, and as typical, when I got on the freeway, once I got passed the point where we had crashed, the freeway was moving great again. Gotta love curious looky-loos.

So there were my minutes of fame. Ha ha. Great right? Now I feel like the bionic women with all the machines attached to me and wires (my insulin pump and the tens unit). Too bad it doesn't make me really strong. Oh well. Now I have to take the poor car to a collision repair shop to get the bumper/crunched trunk fixed and get a rental (all paid for by State Farm Insurance at least). Oh and a great thing that happened as well, when the stereo was popped out, the knob to change the air from cold to hot, was broken off. The metal part that lets you turn the knob and is inside the stereo console was broken and super glue isn't gonna fix it. So now the car is stuck on hot. At least it is getting colder right?

Class Reunion

So the other day I got a facebook invite from my high school class president for our 10 year reunion. A little early, considering it won't be for another 5 years, but it still got me thinking. What in the world have I done since I graduated from good ol Rocklin High School?!

Well, here's what I came up with: I went to BYU, I got married, graduated with my BS in Exercise Science, and started working full time as a Medical Assistant in a Pain Management clinic.

Not a bad list. But I sure hope I have more to add to that by the time my reunion comes around. Basically, I'm just not satisfied with where I am. Sure, my job is great, and it is a job. And I do have a degree and my husband is fantastic. But I feel like I'm selling myself short.

So our big plan, as Brad is graduating in December (thank goodness for that!), I will be applying to nursing school. Cross my fingers I get in so that in 2 years I will have a second BS in Nursing this time. Then Brad can go to grad school and get his DPT (doctorate in physical therapy). Oh yea, and somewhere in there we want to start a family.

But hopefully, all goes well and we can be done with school by 2015. Boy do I hope we are.

On a side note, is it just me, or does it seem like EVERYONE is pregnant?! Not that I'm upset, cause I'm excited for all my friends that are, it just is crazy, cause so many of them are. Maybe that means i'm getting old...

Why's it called Labor Day again?

So for this weekend, my parents and little sister came by! Woohoo! It was so nice to see them, even if it was only for like a day and a half. But they got in Friday evening and we went to the BYU women's soccer game. It was fun, even if it took them a while to build up their moment and score. Then we watched Glory Road back at our apartment (thank you netflix!). My parents, Brad, and I tried to walk down the street to get hawaiian shaved ice, but the shack was closed. Seriously?! Who closes Friday night?! Then I remembered that it was Labor Day weekend, which I guess could be a reason to close...a dumb one though.

We also got Harry Potter 1-6 shipped to us on Friday. Yup, all 6 movies for only$35! We love amazon. Another good buy of the week was getting Psych season 1 for $15 at best buy on Monday. I love sales!

On Saturday, we all went to the Provo Farmers Market at Pioneer Park. I have honestly never been, we have just driven by it. But my mom thought it sounded fun. So we went. Oh man, there were some cute crafts there. This one lady makes purses out of suit coats! They were cute, especially since she puts little designs on them. I wish I had gotten one, but Brad says I don't need it :( My mom and dad did buy us a picture from a photographer that was there. He had some cool pictures. Robyn bought some bracelets, and we would have looked at more, but my dad and Brad were totally bored. Plus we were all hungry. So we went to Tucanos! Yum! My dad is totally addicted so every time they come to visit, he always wants to go. Not that i'm complaining, but it makes me wonder if he is coming to see me or tucanos...ha ha.

After tucanos, my dad bought me a new phone! Hallelujah! I hated my old phone. It was small and dumb and had issues. And Robyn just got a new phone which was totally better than mine. So my awesome dad took me to the store and bought me a new one. It's a pantech, so nothing all fansy, granted I could do stuff on the internet if I wanted to pay for it, which I don't. But it's a touch screen with a full sliding key board. So texting is way easier, and i'm getting used to the touch screen. Not to mention, my phone is blue.

After the new phone, Dad and Brad left for the tailgate party/BYU vs. Washington football game. My mom, Robyn, her friend Calvin, and I played some games at my apartment, then we took Calvin back to his apartment. Then us girls went to the mall. I am happy to say i did not buy anything except a wallflower scent (Autumn) which was on sale. But the buy 3 get 3 free was totally tempting. My Dad loved the football game, especially since BYU won, and I had fun with my mom and sister.

They all left early Sunday morning. Then we went up to Sandy for a baby blessing for Brad's cousin's new baby. It was fun seeing a bunch of his family again. Plus I got to hold Audrey. Then we came home and crashed. We were a little tired after the busyness.

Monday, I cleaned, we ran errands, ran into some old friends in Winco, and hiked the Y. Yea, after being in Provo for roughly 5 years, I have finally hiked the Y. Man, it is harder than it looks. Gaining 1000 feet in elevation in 1 hour is hard on the body. But it is a great day for it. And we got jamba juice afterwards.

In sum, that was our non-laborous Labor Day, Family filled, weekend. And while today sucked cause it felt like monday, tomorrow is wednesday!

Last Semester in Provo!

Yay, I could not be happier! Brad started his last semester at BYU this week and we are so estactic. Not that we haven't loved our time at BYU, but seriously, we are tired of the college town. Our ward is full of people who buy houses here and love provo. We don't! I frankly am just plain tired of students and all the crazy driving, long lines at movies, and loud freshman. Brad laughs at me, but he is tired of it all to. So we are both counting down the days until december ends and we will both officially be graduates of BYU. YAY!! Plus it's football season and soccer season again. I'm more excited about the womens soccer and Brad is more excited about football. But they are both good reasons to get out of our apartment and enjoy the cooler air. I just have to stop glaring at all the loud freshman and awkward dates.

On another note, my parents and little sister are coming out this weekend one their way to drop Robyn off at BYU-I! Crazy! I'm so excited for her but it's still weird to me that my baby sister is starting college! Oh man. But we are excited to see them for the 2 days they will be here. Plus I made my dad super happy when I told him that he could that he could have my ticket to the football game against washington this saturday. He hasn't been to a BYU football game for forever, his last one was at Stanford, when BYU was still occasionally playing Stanford. So it's been forever, not to mention that he hasn't been in LaVelle Edwards Stadium since his college days when the stadium was way smaller and as he told me "the lucky guys brought little radios so they could hear the play-by-plays". So it will be a boys night out deal with my dad, Brad, and Brad's dad. Then I can hang out with my mom and Robyn.

I just can't believe summer is over. That deserves a whole nother "Crazy". But we have had fun this summer. We are pretty tan from floating the weber, lake powell, and Brad working outside. We have had to have things fixed on our car (like the brakes today) and I have taken my CNA test. I know, finally right?! And I have read the Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I have to say, these are not my favorite books. I honestly think i would read twilight over them. But that's because the hunger games are so dang political and the girl does not develop, change. It's just bad new after bad news. Sure, I will probably eventually read that last book, Mockingjay, but I can wait. I'll just stick with Harry Potter and be a happy camper.

Keebler and Crafts

So, I love thin mints, but since girl scouts aren't selling them all year long, I long ago discovered grasshoppers (which are keeblers version of thin mints). I love them, I mean, come on, mint and chocolate go so beautifully together. So on saturday when brad sent me to the store with lots of coupons, and one being a coupon for keebler cookies, I totally planned on coming home with 2 bags of grasshoppers. Low and behold, Keebler has made a new cookie: Cheesecake middles! For anyone who knows me, I love cheesecake and I love chocolate. So obviously, this was a match made in heaven. So, just in case they weren't good, I brought both the cheesecake middles and a bag of grasshoppers home. I have been converted! They are so delicious, you should try them. Granted, it's not like legit cheesecake, but still really good.

My favorite season is fall. Spring is a close second, but I just love fall! The leaves change colors, the air gets cooler and crisp, carving pumpkins, I can wear my beloved jeans again, and all the leaves I can jump in. So, when I went to Maceys today on a hunt for chocolate, they had this craft display out in front. And basically I got hooked. There were all these fall crafts. Now, I like making crafts, but I can never think of what to make, or it doesn't turn out how i thought. Plus, I don't have my mom's craft supplies, so every craft means i need to by paint, brushes, paper, etc. So when I saw these cute crafts, and they were cheap, I just couldn't resist. But, I do need to build up my craft supplies so I can make stuff and try to be like my crafty mother. As for today, yeah for cute things I don't have to put together! Now, I'm totally ready for fall!

For Real?!

So, tonight we went to Red Robin cause I really wanted some clucks and fries with ranch :) Well, as it was raining, thunder, lighting...I was freezing cold. Which of course means that the restraunt had there fans going. Fabulous. But hey, good food is worth it. Too bad our waitress decided we did not deserve the time of day. She brought us our food really quickly, but left without asking if we needed anything (like more ranch, napkins, and more water). This was especially no bueno because I got one ranch and Brad wasn't given any ranch for his fries and burger. So we had to share mine. Well, clucks and fries use a lot of ranch. So after running out of ranch, we waited for our waitress to come back. And we waited and waited, I ran out of water, my hands were salty, no bueno! Then she comes over and asks if we want more water. I tell her that we do as well as more ranch and a couple napkins. After waiting for an even longer period of time, in which I'm just sitting there freezing to death and staring out into the pouring rain outside, she finally brings 1 ranch, 2 lemon slices, and some fry sauce. Hello! I asked for water and napkins to! So she finally brings us water and then our check. We never saw her again. Honestly, I felt like she was rushing us and obviously not paying attention to what we asked for. So when we finished, where out of water, and after waiting a few minutes for her to come run our card, Brad asks me if I have cash. So I pull out some cash and we leave. Brad gave her a 5% tip. I told him that was way too much and I would have only done 25 cents. If you work in customer service, serve your customers!

Recent Loves

So this summer I have discovered some amazing things!

1. The Gurnsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

I love this book! I saw it in Barnes and Noble probably at christmas and thought it sounded interesting. But, due to previous impulse buying disasters (Wicked) I didn't get it. Then, a patient was reading it one day and I asked her about it and she told me it was great. I still didn't get it. Finally, when we went to visit my family for Memorial day, low and behold, my mom has the book! So she let me borrow it. And I read it twice in like a week. I LOVE it! First off, I love historical fictions. Second, I'm fascinated with WWII. Third, I've never heard of Gurnsey, but now I totally want to go there (and lucky for me, England is a place Brad really wants to go). And Fourth, I love the main characters personality, cause it is so much like mine (at least I think so, cept for the part about her loving wuthering heights and pride and prejudice cause I really despise those stories). I just wish I could work in a bookshop so I could read all these books for free and talk to other people about them. Basically I want to read Charles Lamb now (and see if he really is as great as she says), move to an island, and have fun adventures. If you haven't read it, you totally should.

2. Forever Sunshine

I have been totally disappointed with Bath and Body works cause every time i find a scent i really love, they discontinue it (or make it only available online ie: Brown sugar and fig, pink grapefruit, and white cherry blossom). I have come to depend on coconut lime verbana, and found a few others that are okay. But no great perfumey smell. Then, they just introduced their new smell, Forever Sunshine. After my first smell, I knew i needed the spray. Then I tried the lotion, and it is amazingly not too strong, but just so wonderful (much unlike cherry blossom thank goodness - that lotion gives me a headache its so strong!). Basically I love this smell, and now I spray myself with it every morning, cause it makes me not feel so frumpy in my scrubs. It's the best. Nice and summery and girly (i know, very shocking for me right?)

3. Holds and Google

So I finally acquired a library card for the Provo City library. I don't know why it took me so long to do this, especially considering I used to only live like 2 blocks away from it. But, hey, I have one now, thanks to the book club i joined. I joined the book club to try and get ideas of what to read. And have the library card, I can now get whatever I want and return it if I don't like it (too bad I didn't think of that before buying wicked). Problems with book club, the books we read are always checked out, so I put them on hold. I love it! Those are some of the best emails, notifying me that my book is ready. Fantabulous.

Now, I have made a rule to never buy a book until I have read it. I saw some books at Barnes and Noble that sounded good, and although they were on sale, I stuck to my rule. I don't need another wicked. I just got the first of these books from the library and am taking it to Lake Powell with me to read. I'm so excited. It's called The Lost City of Z. Sounds interesting. Another thing i learned during this whole book process, google has previews to books. So when i left Barnes and Noble with 4 book titles that sounded good, I googled them all. I got rid of one, that would have been a wicked, and decided that The lost city of Z sounded the most intriguing, so i put it on hold at the library, and now I have it for 3 weeks. I'm excited, and it's getting hard to wait until Powell to start reading it. But I'm managing.

I just love books! I am determined to one day have a beauty and the beast library. Right now, my current bookshelf is overflowing with books, so brad and I will need to upgrade soon :).

4. I love vacations

So work still stresses me out and sometimes I still hate it. But thank goodness for vacations and holidays! I have all next week off to go to Lake Powell with the in-laws and then Jackson Hole, WY with my mom's side of the family. Lake powell should be a blast, and my mom has planned out all sorts of fun for jackson hole, I'm just not looking forward to seeing my uncle, who I'm not at all close with, and his crazy kids. But I should come back happy and tan (at least i sure hope so). A week should be plenty of time to regain my sanity and be able to come back ready to work. Hallelujah!

Time Flies when you are...at work?

I can't believe the fourth of July is this weekend! Holy crap! What have I been doing? Well...Brad and I work. Exciting right?! Brad works for Orem City Parks so he is super tan and I'm white as a ghost. No fair. I get up at 5:30 every weekday to get ready for the day and drive Brad to work at 7, then I sit and read in the car till I go to work at 7:45. Then at 4:15 I'm done and we drive home. Super exciting, let me tell you. Good work news, the construction/remodeling is done! Yay.

Here is a summary of the fun things we have done:

Go to Rocklin for Memorial Day weekend, which included a killer bike ride. I loved the beginning (cause it was practically all downhill) then I realized that for every down hill there is an up hill. And those up hills were HUGE! I didn't think I was going to make it that last mile, but my wonderful dad put his hand on my back and pushed me. He told me he didn't feel like he was doing anything, but seriously, it was life saving. That's when Brad decided I was out of shape and I decided that I need to do something to help my poor knees. Brad and my brother went to sunsplash after the bike ride (I was exhausted and didn't want to be in the sun any longer, so next summer I will go). I saw Letters to Juliet with my friends Katie and Tamie. We went to BJs with the family. I could have eaten there every day! We had a memorial bbq with the ward at penyrn park. And we visited Grandpa Cramer's grave and went to see Grandma Cramer.

Our friends Madison and Joni got married on June 5th! So we went to a wedding dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial building the night before. Then the sealing was in the Salt Lake Temple saturday morning the reception that evening. Brad was a groomsman so we stayed very busy and had fun decorating the car. Plus, they had coldstone catering at the reception! You could get whatever you wanted basically (whatever from the 5 ice creams and whatever mix-ins they brought). They didn't have my wonderful banana so I had to venture out. It was yummy.

We started playing in our stakes softball league, which means that Brad had to teach me to catch a ball with my left hand. Up until this time, I have thrown and caught balls with my right hand. Well I take that back. The one summer I played softball in the YMCA coach's pitch league, when I was 7, I caught with my right hand and threw with my left. I can't remember much about that league cause I honestly found the game completely boring. But Brad is doing his best to get me involved in the sport he and his family love. He laughs every time I catch a ball cause I'm so surprised. At the game we just played with his Dad's team, when I caught a ball and yelled in surprise, everyone was laughing. The other team had a hard time congratulating me cause they were laughing so hard. Seriously though, I was impressed that I caught a ball coming so fast at me. Granted I didn't catch the ball that was coming super fast to me at second base and it beaned the guy who just ran to second base. I felt bad, but I did shriek when it was coming. I thought that was fair warning to watch out. Brad told me that i was supposed to catch the ball, not move out of the way.

Other than that, we have seen a few movies, like Percy Jackson and the Karate Kid. And we are going to go tubing down the weber cause it's fun. Happy fourth to everyone! I'm just hoping I can get some sun :)

Our updated Life

I figured it has been a month so I better go over what has happened:

1. Brad finished his second to last semester at BYU and did amazing on all of his finals! I'm so proud of him, especially since he told me that it was his hardest semester so far.

2. We moved. Hallelujah! Yup we moved out of the house and away from busy 800 N in provo to 11 blocks south. We are now back in an apartment complex and loving it. We have a counter in the bathroom for the first time in our marriage, we have a garbage disposal again, we are living without cable, and are getting great calf muscles from hiking up the stairs. Plus, we are now in a regular family ward which is kinda nice.

3. We sold the honda! Well, Brad did. We are so happy, cause that is one less thing to worry about, a car with a radiator that we did not want to pay to fix.

4. Work is still crazy, but we have more staff.

5. Brad got a job working for Orem City in Parks and Recreation. So he is getting super tan from working outside, while i'm pasty white. Boo, but we are happy and now he has something to keep him nice a busy.

6. We started a trial of netflix and we love how movies are streamed to our wii! It's awesome. So we can watch a ton of stuff from that while waiting for the next movie to arrive in the mail. The only hitch is when the internet is being dumb (which unfortunately happens a lot lately).

7. Oh yea, I had my birthday. It was fun, Brad got me some new scrubs, and avatar, and some new running shoes that I wear to work (and might go running in...). My mom-in-law got me the last 2 books for the series I have been reading - Father of Our Fathers. So I finally finished those! And my grandma sent me a rug that my Grandpa Cramer had made. I LOVE it!!! My grandpa did a lot of crafts after her retired and I have always wanted something, so this is great! Now i just have to decide where to hang it and then I will always think of him. I just love my grandpa so much, so a rug with an elk on it gets to hang on the wall!

So, we have been busy, we feel pretty moved in to our new place and just got the swamp cooler turned on today, which makes Brad very happy. Plus, in exactly one week we will be driving out to California to spend memorial weekend with my family! I'm so excited! I need a vacation bad!

The Forgotten Merger

"The girl you spoke to must have forgotten about the merger."

Yup that was the funniest thing I heard all week at work! The situation was the Mandy had spoken with a patient who wanted to reach Intermountain Pain Specialists' billing. Mandy told them they had the wrong number. After the phone call she asked me what Dr. George's (the doc who merged with us) office name was and I told her Intermountain Pain Specialists. Then the patient called back again and spoke with Whitney, who said that hilarious line. I bust up laughing and couldn't stop.

Merger? Wait a minute, that's why it's been so crazy and we have all these new providers, patients, and billions of drug screens we are doing?! Who woulda thought?!

I love my co-workers and the funny things we say. I'm so glad Whitney said that, cause laughing is so much better than the crying I had done before from all the stress of work. On Wednesday, Mandy and I were the only MAs and it was the craziest day ever. I told Cassie today that it felt like our work/patients/etc. was a big ol bus, and Mandy and I were the 2 little bicycle wheels trying to support the whole bus. Laugh at me, but that's how it felt. Dr. Ockey today pulled me aside and was like, "Elly, it is going to get better." When I told him that I hoped it would, he then assured me that it was going to cause we are getting 3 new exam rooms (which will help with the room issue) and 2 new MAs (which will help lighten the load). I just wish it was all done now...But Dr. Ockey did tell me that I'm awesome. He had stopped his meeting with our office managers when he saw me running around (yes I literally run/sprint down the hallway in our office) so that they could help with the crazy rush we were experiencing. So I hate my job cause it stresses me out, but I love it too cause I do work with awesome people. So, now I just have to hang on until re-enforcements arrive and laugh about forgetting the merger.

Mergers are good right?

So, my life has been so crazy between class and work. And just when I was feeling like I could handle that, the merger happened.

I work at Utah Valley Pain Management in Orem. Our staff included one doctor, 2 PAs, 2 Nurse Practitioners, a psychologist, a physical therapist, a Physical therapy assistant, 4 medical assistants, 1 receptionist, a bill specialist, a authorization specialist, and our office manager. Within 2 weeks and this merger, we gained a second office manager, an MA (who was fired a week later), a new authorization specialist, another receptionist, 2 new PAs, and second psyschologist, with a second doctor coming soon. What does all this staff add up to? Crazyness!

I guess I should explain the merger. So there were 2 different pain management clinics in orem: ours, and Dr. George's office (Intermountain Pain Specialists). Well, Dr. George, due to health reasons, decided to retire and wanted his patients to all come to our clinic. So, we took on his 2 PAs (physician assistants) and some of his office staff, as well as all of his patients. Now, my clinic is part of a group of radiologists/doctors who work at IHC hospitals, Utah Valley Imaging, Intermountain Vein Center, and Interventional Radialogists. The COO of our group came and talked to us about this merger and was totally excited about the growth and good things this would be for the whole group. Well, he didn't seem to mention that we would be crazy and short staffed and busting at the seems even more then we were before.

So here we are, after week two of the merger, and it's crazy as ever. Dr. George's office did things a little differently (like paper charts! ugh what nightmares). So they are once again remodeling our office (which means changing physical therapy's side of the office and giving them less space to do things...poor guys). Plus we have had to train all the new staff, get the new PAs adjusted to our policies, done a billion urine drug screens, fired staff so we are even more short staffed, etc. Before the merger, a busy day would involve like 15 drug screens. Now we do like 30 a day, most of the time we are doing a bunch at the same time. We have to get vitals and drug screens on all of Dr. George's patients. Craziness. Most days I come home so frazzeled and worn out. Poor Brad. Since the merger, I have gotten 4.5 hours of overtime, and I'm definately not trying to get any! I just don't have enough time to finish everything in a day. The phone is always ringing and even more patients need to talk to MAs, get prescriptions, drug screens, etc. And guess what, we haven't gained any extra MAs (since the new MA from Dr. George's office was fired). Even the providers say we are way understaffed. For having doubled our patients, we should have doubled our office staff, and we haven't. Oh well, job security right?

So yea, the merger is good...good when you have no life you need to get back to and don't need sleep, or you can easily manage stress and feeling stretched way too thin. Monday I felt like someone had asked me to run a marathon faster than I ever have and then they shot me in the foot and told me to get going cause I was waisting time. Oh boy, at least its the weekend, and the new PAs are getting the hang of it all. Plus, Paul will be gone next week, so that's less providers to worry about. Happy day. I love my job, just not so much these past two weeks.

So my exciting thing of this week happened on Wednesday at work. I was on the phone with a patient and Cassie was standing in front of my desk. So when I got off, she told me that the patient she just roomed had questions about his meter and she figured that I would be the best to help with that. So I was just like, sure, I'll give it a shot and see what I can do. I walked into the patient's room and he told me that he just got this meter that morning and could not figure out how to work it and the test strips. Well, he happened to have a similar meter to mine and the exact same test strips. So I told him how to use the test strips and where to put the blood (with the free style lite test strips it goes on the side instead of the bottom).
I asked him if he had a one touch meter before (where you put the blood in at the bottom of the strip) and he told me that he did. I then explained that the free style lite were great because they require less blood and give you more time to get all the blood you need for the strip (this is a big deal, believe me). So he asked if I could help him test his blood sugar, and he poked his finger and I put the strip in and then put it up to his finger so the blood was sucked in (wow that sounds kinda gross...). He thanked me for helping him out because he hadn't been able to test it that morning as he could not find out how to work it. I told him it was no problem.

Well, that was the most fun ever! My passion is diabetes and I wish every patient had diabetes related questions. I know a whole lot more about that than pain medication and procedures. So, it was 5 minutes of my dream job of being a CDE (certified diabetic educator).

A picture montage from December (mostly)

Here are some pictures from the Holidays. I didn't take a whole lot, but here are some.

Nothing says Merry Christmas more than a big decorated tree! Such an improvement to our little 3 foot tree. I love my in-laws!

My mom made us this placque, which I have been asking for, and in a goofy moment, we decided to take mug shots with it. I would like to think we don't look this bad all the time.

I love Temple Square at Christmas time!

This was Brad's goatee he decided to grow during the winter break. His goal was to keep it until we visited my family, but I'm pretty sure he shaved it before Christmas. I thought it was funny looking and he hates how itchy facial hair is.

This deliciousness is the marble chocolate cheesecake I made for Valentines day! It was delightfully yummy! I got the recipe from my friend Anita Draney.

Stress, Its a Killer

On monday I went to for my check up/lab work with my doctor and we talked about things that could be causing my blood sugar to be low. We came to the decision that it was stress. I am stressed alot. I just feel like I have too much on my plate and am spreading myself too thin. Poor Brad only gets to see a worn out stressed version of his wife. But, since seeing the doctor, I decided to try and work harder to calm down, breathe, and not stress out at work or my class. Well, this week was just awful. At least twice this week I almost marched up to my office manager and told her I was quitting. I have been so overwhelmed and over worked this week with people being sick or having time off. It's just that my job is demanding. If the phone rings and a patient has a question, an MA has to take it. When someone needs a pill count, a UA, to be roomed, a provider needs a report, or a procedure to be scheduled, etc. that is all part of my job. So when there were never more than 2 MAs at work, it was nuts, to say the least.

Basically after starting out the week with a crazy busy presidents day (of doctors appointments and work) it only got worse. You know its bad when our slowest day (Thursday) never gets slow. So by the time Friday came around, and I was not getting a lunch break because I had too many questions to take care of and the phone wouldn't stop ringing, I was ready to quit. I had to go back and clean rooms and get control of my emotions cause I started crying from being so overwhelmed. Granted my blood sugar wasn't the greatest, so that probably aided in the break down of my emotions, but I was fried and couldn't take any more. Now, I didn't quit, cause I need my job. After I got my breathing under control I just went right back to my list of things to take care of and the rest of the day finished out okay, for the most part.

So this weekend Brad has been focusing on what will help me de-stress and relax. I got a lot of sleep, have watched a lot of olympics (which unfortunately has mostly been curling...how is that even considered a sport?) and we were able to hang out with a lot of friends this week as well. On wednesday, all of us Rocklin girls got together because my friend Katie had flown out to visit from California. So everyone and their spouses came over and we ate food and talked. The girls had so much to catch up on that we didn't even play games, we just talked and ate. Meanwhile, the boys watched the olympics together. It was so good to catch up and see everyone though. Then Friday, we went out to sushi with Brad's friends, Dan and Joni. We learned that Asukas no longer has all you can eat sushi, so we headed over to Sukuras. They actually have a bigger selection of sushi, waiters who speak english, and a better appearance overall, so Brad was happy. And I ate chicken teriyaki while everyone else enjoyed there uncooked fish and seaweed.

Saturday, we relaxed, went to Hilary's wedding reception, and went to Red Robin and bowling with Madison and Joni. It was so much fun, and I was once again a horribly inconsistent bowler, but we laughed and enjoyed seeing each other. Plus, we all got to eat a ton of fries and ranch! Yum! Plus, it was just fun to see our Ute friends and here how the wedding planning is going. So I have officially recovered from a crazy week, and I so hope that everyone is at work this week and that it is not as crazy otherwise I might just loose my head. I still would love to have a vacation though. A cruise would be so nice right now!

Sore Teeth and Narcotic Induced Nausea

So ever since I saw our last dentist, Dr. Moody, my teeth have been killing me to some degree. So we switched dentists to Dr. Payne, who all my co-workers recommended. Despite the name, Dr. Payne has been really good. Dr. Payne had me try sensitive toothpaste to see if that did the trick for my painful teeth. After this didn't work, and the pain only got worse, I went back in and he did an evaluation of the trouble area. After an x-ray and several different tests, Dr. Payne told me that he thought I had a tooth that would need a root canal. He explained that the filling in it was pretty close to the root, which can affect the root and cause it to be painful and start to die. As that tooth felt no cold when he did a temperature test, it seemed pretty clear that the molar was no good. He made some adjustments to my bite and then told me to see if that did the trick, otherwise I would probably need a root canal.

Well, the next week I unfortunately came down with a cold. All of the congestion caused a lot of nasal pressure, which in turn made my tooth hurt like the dickens. After a night of crying due to the agonizing pain, I called the dentist and went in again. Dr. Payne explained that congestion can put a lot of pressure onto the roots (and as the problem tooth was in my upper jaw, it probably was getting pressed on a lot). So he prescribed an antibiotic to help clear up my sinuses and some Lortab for the pain. And wonderful Dr. Payne told me to call him if it still hurt a ton and he would do the root canal over the weekend. Well, almost immediately the antibiotic helped! It was wonderful. Within a day of using it I was feeling much better, cold wise and tooth wise. However, I did notice that biting down was uncomfortable for 2 particular teeth : the problem tooth and the tooth right below it. So, after a week, the dentist office called to check up on me and I told them about my bottom jaw hurting now. So I went in again to have my other tooth looked at. And guess what?! After an x-ray, Dr. Payne showed me that there was an infection under the new problem tooth cause on the x-ray it was all dark under the root. He told me the only way to fix that was a root canal. Wonderful! So the upper problem tooth didn't hurt, but now the one right below had an infection.

So yesterday I went in to have the fabulous root canal. The actual root canal wasn't bad and Dr. Payne gave me an ipod with every type of music on it to listen to. During the root canal, while drilling, he told me that a healthy tooth will have a lot of blood. Then he told me that for my tooth there wasn't a single drop. That indicated to him that this tooth has been bad for a while. He was surprised I hadn't come in sooner. Well, after an hour of killing the root (which Dr. Payne told me aren't even really necessary or helpful to the teeth) Dr. Payne told me that I was good to go. He then prescribed me more Lortab because he was concerned I would be in a lot of pain due to the fact my tooth had been so rotted.

Well, I took a Lortab with lunch to help with the soreness as the numbing wore off. All yesterday my stomach was not feeling good and I thought I was going to toss my cookies two different times. I didn't think too much of it and today when my tooth was hurting again, I took another Lortab. Well, then I got a headache and just felt gross. I spoke with one of our nurse practioners and some of the girls at work, and found out that this was pretty normal. All the girls I work with don't like Lortab and don't think it works for anything (except maybe bone aches). Well, all I can say is I don't understand why some of our patients overdose on this stuff! There goes my career as a narcotics addict!

Oh well, hopefully this root canal does the trick and my teeth stop hurting.

How to Sleep like the Dead

So I survived my first crazy week of work and night classes! Yay! The sad part is that this week my teacher made the classes shorter because she said she wanted to give us a week before we actually stayed for the full 4 hours of class. Yuck! Basically what I have learned so far in my first week of CNA class is that I appreciate my job as a Medical Assistant. I'm not gonna lie, I have never been interested in geriatrics. So learning about caring, washing, whatever for old people is just not appetizing. Granted, we haven't really gotten into that stuff yet, but my teacher did have us a watch an overview movie the first class and it was kinda gross. I love working with people and feeling like I can make their day better, but I really don't want to deal with cranky old people.

In my class we have all of one guy, 5 high school students, a mom, and the rest of us. So everyone is 16-30. Haha. My favorite part of the class is the two girls who comment on everything! My favorite students! It's even better when you know you have to deal with the comments for 4 hours that night. Then, on the first day of class, the teacher was going over the rules, schedule, etc. and one of the rules was no food. I was about to tell her "I'm diabetic and if i need to eat i'm going to!" but she added that as long as we were not disruptive she did not mind us snacking. Good thing, so I eat teddy grahams and granola bars during class. Plus, the food helps keep me awake. I leave from work on Tuesday and Thursday and drive straight to school and then want to crash as soon as I sit down in class. Luckily, the teacher (Pat) seems to understand that we need to do more than sit there, so she gives us a break and activities. Otherwise, I would sleep through the lecture. Instead, I go home and crash. Poor Brad. He has been wonderful and cooks dinner on those nights. Then, after our late dinner, I go to bed. As soon as a close my eyes I am out! Honestly, if you have trouble sleeping, you should try this schedule!

Wednesday was my one week night I came home before 6. I went visiting teaching and then had dinner and did my reading for class the next day. So I still did not get in bed as early as I would have liked. I totally had forgotten that my pump was almost out of insulin, so at 2am my pump went off. I was so dead tired I just put it on suspend (which makes it so the alarm only goes off every 15minutes instead of every 3), took it off, and put it on the floor next to the bed so it wouldn't vibrate the bed. Well, I went right back to sleep. However, poor Brad shook me a little later and asked if I knew I was out of insulin. I told him that I did and rolled back over. He later got out of bed and went and slept on the couch because he couldn't sleep with the alarm going off (the alarm isn't that loud either but Brad has ultra sensitive hearing and he told me that he is extremely sensitive to anything diabetes related). When I woke up at 6am I was totally shocked to not see him in bed. I felt so bad. Brad told me that I slept really soundly. That is basically how I have been sleeping all night.

Last night I did a basal check, which is where I woke up every 2 hours to check my blood sugar to see how it fluctuates at night and if I need to adjust the amount of insulin I receive every hour. Well, I was so surprised I woke up for all my alarms. It sure didn't help me get out of bed this morning (and I had some smeared blood on my finger I had poked that I apparently hadn't cleaned so great by the light of my cell phone). Brad was kinda concerned that I didn't get up to my last alarm this morning and started tickling my feet to make me move and check my blood sugar. He gets worried that I am low in the morning when I don't move. But I was fine of course and I feel like last night did nothing to help with my blood sugar except stress and tire my poor body out.

Wow, So i have noticed how boring our blog is, but well, I don't take alot of pictures and posting them is the biggest pain. I am blog retarted. So sorry about all the writing, it's the only easy thing.

On a side note for this week, I have had some wierd cravings, wierd as in I normally only crave chocolate or sweets. But thursday I really wanted chicken nuggets, so Mandy and Cassie got when some when they went to Wendys. I don't think I have ever been so satisfied with chicken nuggets before. Then last night Brad and I were supposed to have this asian thing for dinner, but I really was craving fries and ranch, so we went to Red Robin were I had chicken strips and LOTs of fries and ranch! Yum! Well actually, now it doesn't sound so great, but at the time it was wonderful. No I'm not pregnant, my stomach has just been really wierd this week, maybe from the lack of sleep....

Now Entering the Crazy Life

So I am starting a CNA evening class this week. I'm kind of nervous cause well it's almost been a year since I've taken a class and I will have even less of a life than I do now. Basically I will be working full time and then on the 2 nights I get home early, I have to go to class. I didn't really realize how much this limited any social life I could have, until the other day when Brad was trying to plan something with some of our friends and he had to tell them that Monday doesn't really work because I work until 8:30-9, and Tuesday and Thursday I will be in class till 9:30. So hopefully I don't have a lot of homework to do for this class. But while I'm kinda nervous and anxious, I know that this class will be good. Getting my CNA is a step to one day getting my RN since most places require, or at least encourage, you to have it. So, let the craziness begin! And then I can try to have a life again in May when all this is over.

Holidays

Well, I guess we should talk about our holidays. Christmas was spent up in Kaysville, UT with Brad's family. We were very happy to b e out of Happy Valley and spend time with the family, especially with all of Brad's siblings home from school. On Christmas Eve we all went up to Temple Square to look at the lights. Kimber took a ton of pictures, which I'm sure are awesome. Elly took some too. Elly was excited because going to see the lights is one of her favorite things to do. Temple Square was beautiful of course and the coolest part was that we got to use some of the underground tunnels to get there because Brad's dad works for the church so we parked in the underground parking and walked up the stairs right into the Temple Square.

Christmas was a nice day, other than the news of the Grandpa's death. Elly read an entire book. Brad beat at least half of the new Super Mario Bros. We also did puzzles and had a nice dinner with the family. Brad was pretty excited about getting an ipod and super mario brothers. Elly got her favorite picture of Jesus and Wii Fit Plus (which is amazing as long as no one is watching you play). The next day we went to Grandma and Grandpa Steven's to celebrate the season with the Steven's side of the family (Brad's mom's side). We lucked out in the gift game and got a new game and slippers (other gifts included Sarah Palin's book and necklaces). We had fun playing games and visiting with the family. The funniest part of the evening was when Brian's wife, Camile, who at the time was 8 months pregnant, had to borrow one of Grandma Steven's shirts because she was hot in her sweater. It was definitely entertaining.

After Christmas with the Taylor family, we went back to Provo for one night and one day of work, then we headed out to California. We left Monday night so we could spend more time with the Cramer family in lue of the funeral services. Also, a storm was supposed to be coming in on Tuesday through Nevada. So Monday we made a nice night drive across BEAUTIFUL nevada! haha We truly hate that state, but such is the drive to Sac-town. So all was good and clear, until Reno. Then we ran into the snow and had to put chains on to get over the pass. 50 miles worth of chains! From Reno to Alta! Took us 2 hours to go what normally took 40 minutes. But well, we made it safely, and we had some nice guy help us put the chains on in Reno so Elly could sit in the warm car.

Well, California was CRAZY. Before Grandpa's death, we had been planning on doing all sorts of fun things with the family. However, with a funeral to prepare for, fun kinda went out the window and stressed craziness entered. Elly's mom was freaking out about flowers, pictures to display, and programs. Elly did what she could to help. Brad was able to escape and go snowboarding with Steven at Boreal (which Brad laughs at due to it's small size compared to Utah's resorts). We did get to eat our favorite pizza though (BJ's) and Robyn "indoctrinated" us on Psych. Grandma and Grandpa Bennett came up from SoCal to see Brad and Elly. It was good to see them and play some card games. We all learned that Grandma is the Apples to Apples queen! That was a shocker! Cards I never thought she would have put down were hers! Plus, Elly got to walk Sadie every day and love her puppy (which made her wonder who walks the dog when she isn't there). New Year's Eve wasn't very exciting, we mostly just played Super Mario Bros (Brad's escape from the craziness). But New Year's day the whole family went and saw Invictus. Elly also got to catch up with a few friends while in town.

Saturday was the funeral. Elly actually help up better than Brad thought she would. However, she did start to cry on the drive to the funeral due to a certain country song that mentioned someone dying. She also had a hard time at the viewing. But the service was very nice, and the casket spray was actually not ugly. Elly's dad gave a great talk reviewing past memories that had everyone crying in parts. After the service, the family had a nice lunch. Brad got to meet Cramers that Elly had never even met before, such as Great Uncle Dick, Grandpa Cramer's youngest and only living brother. After the lunch, Uncle Dick was invited back to the house for dinner. It was really nice to get and talk with him and hear all of his stories about the family, such as how Great Grandma and Grandpa met. G. Grandma Cramer was teaching an electrician class at the college and Great Grandpa was a student in that very class. Dad then told Elly that now they know that she got her math smarts from her great grandma. So other than time with the family, Elly also completed her 2 favorite puzzles and we had a second Christmas, opening the presents from Elly's family.

Sunday we drove back home and we so excited to come back to our bed and quite apartment. The only downside to being home was that we had no food.