Kristen Marie

Picture of the Month Club

2011-11-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to be a member of the cheese of the month club or the sausage of the month club, or maybe root beer of the month club. Well....this might be as close as I get. Since I don't seem to be doing too well with blogging, I thought I would at least leave a brief record of some of the highlights of the last six months.

JUNE: Seattle Rock N' Roll Half Marathon. Michelle and Anna came up from California and we had a great time. Dave, Michelle, and I ran the 13.1 mile course along Lake Washington, ending at Qwest Field.

JULY: Glacier National Park. I got to tag along with the Hill family on a leg of their cross-country trip. We camped at Two Medicine Lake and drove the Going to the Sun Road.

AUGUST: East Coast. Dave and I got to visit the Lincoln family in New Jersey, including a day in New York City.

SEPTEMBER: University of Washington. I started my second and hopefully final year of my Masters program. It can't be that hard to write a thesis, right?

OCTOBER: Happy Halloween! A costume for both squash lovers and math lovers alike: Pumpkin Pi.

Dating Dave- as easy as ABC.

2011-05-08T21:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I suppose that it is high time I blog about a certain young man in my life. Below is a list of random tidbits, fun facts, and amusing anecdotes all about me and my favorite guy.

Alaska Airlines sent Dave a voucher for a free plane ticket after he kindly attended to a fellow passenger who passed out in the aisle mid-flight. She was perfectly fine but the flight attendants were overcome with gratitude when Dave agreed to check her pulse. We are thinking of staging similar incidents on our future plane trips.

Briar Avenue is where we first met when we lived next door to each other while attending BYU six years ago. Go Cougars!

Cassette tapes are Dave's preferred method of leisure listening. Looking for an original Ace of Base cassette? Dave could check one out to you.

Dentistry is Dave's chosen profession. He works at two rural clinics, giving him lots of time to listen to audiobooks and stare at the back of logging trucks on his long commutes.

Espanol comes easy for Dave who served an LDS mission in Honduras. I am now teaching him the celestial language of German so he can impress the couple in his ward from Munich.

Fife, Washington is a tiny town almost exactly half way between our houses so on a few occasions we have met there at Fife's finest restaurant- The Warthog Barbecue Pit.

Game night at the Loft (aka my apartment) is where Dave and I reconnected. Unbeknownst to me, my roommate had met Dave the month before and invited him to come. Because of this, she likes to take credit for our relationship.

A Hootenanny is Dave's idea of a good party. He plays the piano, guitar, drums and even took violin lessons for a few months last year. I may even be inspired to break out my ukulele again.

Interest. Dave played this word in our Scrabble game tonight for a whopping 66 points. When we first started dating, he used to let me win. Now I know how good he really is.

Just kidding.

Kristen and Dave are engaged. Please see letter J.

Loveland, Colorado is lucky enough to be Dave's hometown as well as the home of the Valentine's Re-mailing Program.

Mount Rainier is just down the road from Dave's (well, a long way down the road) and has been a fun place to go for some adventures. Here we are snowshoeing a few months ago on Inspiration Point.

Ninety minutes is how long it takes me to drive from my home in Seattle to Dave's in Tumwater. He claims it only takes an hour but oddly, he is always a half an hour late getting here.

One hundred and fourteen dollar is the amount of money Dave's speeding ticket would have been earlier this week but the kind officer told him that he should use the money to take his girlfriend out to dinner instead. Score!

Papa Murphy's. This is Dave's favorite pizza. He has a regular Papa Murphy's but because they were starting to recognize him too often, he also has a backup Papa Murphy's. I teased him about that until I realized that I have a regular Jimmy John's and a backup Jimmy John's.

Quarrels are rare between but we do disagree on a few things including the appropriateness of ketchup on breakfast food and at what point one can begin wearing sandals. In case you are wondering, he is pro-ketchup and a warm weather only flip-flop wearer.

Red, raw hands is what Dave had after the Passover Dinner that I was in charge of last month because he spent almost two hours washing dishes when it was over. Oy vey!

Six months is how long we have been dating. A good reminder that I am long overdue for my teeth cleaning which is a little ironic, given how often I see a dentist.

Triathlons and half marathons are among Dave's hobbies. I'm excited that we get to run the Seattle Rock n' Roll half marathon together next month with my sister Michelle. I use the term "together" loosely as Dave is much faster than I am.

United States Postal Service gets more business thanks to Dave who believes in the lost art of letter writing and snail mail. This may be in part due to the fact that he doesn't have internet access at his apartment.

eVen before Dave and I met, our families had already made connections. His sister roomed with my cousin at Ricks and later played on the champion intramural basketball team with my brother and sister.

White Pass is a ski resort near Mount Rainier where I skied for the first time in over 10 years. Dave has been skiing much more recently which put us at very different skill levels. Luckily, we found a trail that split halfway down. He got to go on his black diamonds and I got to snowplow down "Easy Street." Win-win!

Xtreme Couponing has nothing on Dave. While we were at Office Depot yesterday, Dave found some pens he liked on clearance. When the cashier rang him up, his total was $.01. I think there was a glitch in the system somewhere but they gave it to him anyway. He is one lucky guy!

Yikes! Are you still reading this? Thanks for enduring to the end.

Zodiac signs are one of many things we have in common. Our December birthdays are only eight days apart. Well, eight days and three years.

Well, there you have it. Stay tuned for my next post where I will use the Croatian alphabet to describe life in graduate school.

Just saying...

2011-02-14T11:50:00.000-08:00

Remember this blog post? I am happy to report that in the last few months, all of my socks have had mates. Happy Valentine's Day.

Kristen in Nicaragua

2010-10-24T19:45:00.000-07:00

I was so lucky to have spent the last week in Nicaragua. We flew in and out of Managua but spend the majority of our time visiting rural cities. Our team was a group of nurses and we worked with this really great organization.

Seriously, how beautiful is this country? I loved seeing this view.

Part of the program is to train local health promoters to be able to provide some basic health care. Here I am at our vital signs station. I really enjoyed getting to know these people. They don't get paid for their work but they are totally committed to serving their community and trying to improve conditions.

Did I mention it was rainy season? We were outside a lot so I am glad I brought along an emergency poncho. I must have good taste because several of my colleagues had brought the same one.

So our work mostly focused on the children. We would measure and weight them to assess for malnutrition, check their blood for anemia, and send fecal samples to the lab to look for parasites. There was a treatment station for iron pills, deworming medication and a chance to see a physician. We saw over 400 children so we were busy. This little girl was so funny! We were at nap time at this point of the day and most of the kids were pretty cranky but this girl just slept through everything. We are checking her height in this picture and you can tell that she is still completely zonked. Next we took her over to check her blood. When we pricked her finger, she just opened her eyes and gave us an offended look and then went back to sleep. I was actually a little worried at this point that her blood sugar was really low or something but her mother assured us that this is how she always sleeps and sure enough, a little while later, she was awake...and crying.

Some of the places we went to were so rural that we couldn't drive to them. It was actually quite fun to load up a couple of horses with supplies and then hike to some little village on top of a mountain. And the views were amazing! Here is our group with a Nicaraguan medical student and health promoter during one of our hikes.

It was a great trip. I learned a lot about public health by being there. Which is good because I had to miss a week of classes to go. Unfortunately, none of what I learned will be on my biostatistics midterm tomorrow. Meh. As my dad says, don't let school get in the way of your education. :)

First Day of School

2010-09-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this isn't exactly how I looked going to my first day of school but it is certainly how I felt. Like a little girl in pigtails and glasses, intoxicated by the smell of a new trapper-keeper. The first morning of classes has always been exciting for me. I remember those days growing up and how I would carefully layout my persona-defining outfit and new school supplies. Mom would take my picture in front of whichever bush was flowering at the time and off I would go.

This year, starting at an unknown campus, meant familiarizing myself with the bus routes and painstakingly studying the floor plan of the health science building which continues to baffle me. But despite sleeping through my alarm, I made my bus and found the classroom with two minutes to spare. I took a deep breath, opened the door...and the massive classroom was completely empty! This was seriously like a bad dream. Had they moved the classroom and I missed the memo? It took ten terrifying minutes with my email and course syllabus before I came to the comforting yet embarrassing realization that this class didn't start until Thursday. Well, it was a good dry run.

Go Huskies!

We pause from our regular blogging...

2010-08-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

...to bring you a special announcement. For the next few weeks, you can follow my temporary blog here about my time in India.

The Kid

2010-07-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

I had a moment today. Let me paint you a picture. I went out to my car and the battery was dead so I hopped on my bike to make it to my hair appointment. My normal shoulder strap purse wasn't exactly bike friendly so I substituted it with my roommate's mini backpack. I knew I also needed to go to the library so I brought my overdue book which happened to be targeted for young adults.

As I was waiting to get my hair cut, the combination of the bike, book, and backpack suddenly struck me and I felt the familiar feeling of a little kid playing grown-up. The only thing that felt out of place was that I was at a hair appointment.

That actually happens to me fairly often. When I'm working at the hospital or paying bills or getting my oil changed, I sometimes think, Am I really old enough to be doing this? When did I turn into an adult? I almost worry that someone is going to find me out and send me back home to my parents.

But with all due modesty, I was kind of a cute kid.

Bike, etc

2010-06-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

I took a page from Emily's life and bought this:

I'm so happy to have a bike again! I spent many a joyful hour on a bike as a child and later as a missionary. In fact, I think I fell in love with this bike partly because it reminded me of the bike I rode in Magdeburg.

This actually isn't the bike I was talking about. I looked through all my mission pictures and I couldn't find a good picture of my Magdeburg bike. So I am posting this one instead. This was my first bike in Weimar. It was a mens bike, as you can tell from the high bar. I had some good times making that work with skirts. :)

Okay, back to present day. Naturally, since I bought the bike, we have had an abnormally high number of rainy days, even for Seattle. Yesterday, however, was sunny and beautiful. I rode down to the institute for a concert. It was my test run to see if I could handle riding to campus this fall. It had a few tough spots but overall, not bad. Riding home, along the lake, I just felt so content. As soon as I settle on a name (Ruby? Beulla?), I think we will get along just fine.

The "etc" part of the post is this: I am going to India this summer. Click here to learn more about my trip and if you feel so inclined, the opportunity to donate to a very worthy cause.

Thin Skinned

2010-05-26T01:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight at work, a patient yelled at me. I'm sure it was the situation and not our simple misunderstanding that was the catalyst but I got the brunt of it anyway. The next time I went into his room, he apologized. It was sincere and I accepted. "That's okay," I told him, "I have a pretty thick skin." That was a lie. I said it because I feel like that is what nurses are supposed to have. We have to deal with a lot stuff so you have to have a thick skin to deal with it but mine never developed.

I remember one of the first days of my mission in Germany, being rejected for the first time and getting this awful feeling in my stomach. I thought to myself, "It is just because you're new to this. You'll get used to it." But I never did. Eighteen months and I got that feeling every time. Better than apathy, I grant you, but it's heck on the heart.

I can't think of anymore to write so I am going to spend the rest of my lunch break reading Ender's Game which I checked out from the library yesterday. As a Mormon and a bookworm, I feel a sense of obligation to finally read this book.

Oh and P.S- I am going to go to grad school. Pretty sure, anyway.

The thought in my head...

2010-05-08T03:02:00.000-07:00

You know how sometimes you think that you have your life figured out because you think you know exactly what you want and so you start making plans and you get really excited about it and then you start telling other people about your plans and they start getting really exctied for you and you feel great about it but then you unexpectedly get into that really competitive graduate program, the one you wanted to get into but thought was off the table and the one that could help you get a job that you would love but the program won't let you defer even for a semester and so now you have to choose between two awesome things and you are having a hard time finding a way to have your cake and eat it too?

You know?

Wanderlust

2010-05-04T01:48:00.000-07:00

Isn't German a great language? You know that I desire hiking which is how this word literally translates; "wadern" (to hike) and "lust" (desire). Parenthetically, my first hike of the season last weekend was lovely even if it did rain the whole time. But back to wanderlust. Of course, colloquially, it expresses more of a desire to travel the world than to hike. Now, if I was really speaking German (which I am sorry to say I haven't done in a few years now), I might use the word "fernweh" or loosely, "to ache for something far away", which I think also has a nice sentiment.

Well, I got it bad.

I feel like that sentence deserves its own paragraph because it is true. I love living in Seattle. I really do. I could live here the rest of my life, or in some other city that I would equally enjoy. But I'm not tied down here. Besides my job, I don't have any binding obligations. Nor am I in debt. And that leads me to have a lot of "If I don't do it now, I'll never do it" arguments with myself, thinking of distant lands where I would like to live. Of course, there's that voice that says, "Maybe you'll never get married or have a family and then you'll have 60 years to do that stuff. What's your hurry?" but that voice really bugs me so I pay it no heed. With two years of nursing under my belt, I feel like I have something to offer. So here comes another one-line wonder.

I quit my job.

I wonder if people daydream about being able to write that sentence. I didn't. I actually like my job and was nervous to talk to my nurse manager who, by the way, is awesome. And I actually didn't end up totally quitting. Here's my plan in a nutshell: travel the world for a year (give or take), volunteering with various medical humanitarian organizations. Right now my trips are at all stages of planning from about to buy a plane ticket to haven't even sent in my application. Potential trips include: India, Nicaragua, China and Cameroon. A few less exotic but equally exciting trips may take me to Ensign Ranch (as a girls camp nurse), Glacier National Park and to visit baby girl Hill (aka Lalalalalala). And my boss is awesome because she is letting me stay on per Diem so I can work between trips, setting my own schedule.

What I'm saying, folks, is that this blog might get a heck of a lot more interesting come August. Oh and post script, if anyone has any suggestions for other awesome trips, I still have some time in summer 2011. So if you know of anything...Especially something in Antarctica, per my serve on every continent goal.

Spiteful

2010-04-28T03:36:00.000-07:00

I can't post pictures on my blog while I'm at work. But I'm okay with that. Ever since I concluded that I don't need a picture in order to create a successful blog post, I have been writing more at work. I learned in college that 3 am is my peak time for creative writing, anyway.

On my way to the hospital this evening, I heard a song on the country station. Did you know that I often listen to country music now? Last month, when my friend Jessica visited me, we had a long drive to Mount Rainier and back for our snowshoeing adventure. Wanting to be a good host, I deferred to her radio station of choice which was country. And now I like it. It turns out, it isn't that hard to be a country fan. After about a week, I had familiarized myself with the most commonly played songs and now I can sing along.

Well, tonight I heard a song that I hadn't heard in a really long time. "Earl Had to Die." I want to say that it is by the Dixie Chicks but I wouldn't bet my lunch on it. It is kind of a terrible song, actually. A girl gets abused by her husband and then she and her friend plot his death. If someone had told me this story as a news headline, I would probably shake my head and mutter, "Oh, that's tragic." But when they sing it, it is catchy and (dare I say it?) almost charming. And I like it, in spite of myself.

It is the equivalent of Cheetos. These are perhaps the most unnatural, processed snacks on the face of the earth. Now arguably, Twinkies might be more extreme, but those have never been a temptation for me. Cheetos, however, I really enjoy. Like in a, "If you could only have one food on a deserted island?" kind of way. It's really a shame. I have been trying to let Seattle's organic-trendy culture rub off on me. To be one of those people who shudders at the thought of letting white flour or refined sugar even touch their week supply of PCC produce. I get it. There is essentially no nutritional value from a bag of Cheetos. But I like it. In spite of myself.

Perhaps this brings me to the point of this blog. By nature, I would call myself a timid person. Actually that sounds pretty wimpy. I don't want to call myself that. Demure? Nope, don't like that one either. Reserved. That's it. A respectable trait. Although you would never hear someone say, "Oh, I had such a fun time with my friend last night. She is so reserved!" But this week, I want to do some things that are bold. Brave things. You know the kind of things that give you butterflies in your stomach just thinking about them. If all goes well with these things, maybe I'll blog about them next week and be a little less vague. For now, I'll just say, braver than killing a bug but less brave than jumping out of an airplane. These are things that I have been thinking about doing for quite a while. And I really want to do them.

In spite of myself.

From the trail...

2010-04-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

While I was running today, my iPod died right in the middle of "I Will Survive". I guess it didn't have all its love to give. Also, I spent a disproportionate amount of time trying to find a close parking spot at the lake before my six mile run.

Irony noted, universe.

OctoBlogging

2010-04-14T03:25:00.000-07:00

I just noticed that Kelli tagged me over a month ago for this blogging-game. Sorry, buddy!

This actually works out quite nicely. I keep thinking to myself, "I really should post something on my blog" because, as you may have noticed, it has been a while. There is a reason for that. The most obvious thing to post would be in regards to changes that I am thinking of making in my life. However, I haven't quite decided what those changes will be and I really should decide before I write about them. So until I resolve my quarter-life crisis (too early for mid-life), I will propel myself to the top of fellow-bloggers' sidebars by answering some introspective questions.

8 Things I'm passionate about

1. Obviously not maintaining my blog. Although blog stalking would probably qualify

2. The gospel of Jesus Christ, especially temple work

3. My amazing family
4. Encouraging my male peers to shave off their facial hair
5. Telling my patients not to take more than 4 grams of Tylenol per day. We are about to start a liver transplant program and this is the leading cause of acute liver failure. Lay off the percocet, people!
6. Using "good" and "well" correctly
7. Making really good Italian Cream Sodas
8. Organ Donation

8 Words/phrases I use most often
1. Hey, buddy!

2. That's true.
3. Peace out.
4. I don't know what to do with my life.
5. 11 East, this is Kristen. How can I help you?
6. Get 'er done.
7. What's shakin'?

8. Okey-dokey.

8 Things I want to do before I die
1. Have my picture in a conference edition of the Ensign.
2. Kayak from Alaska to Seattle.
3. Grow a family.
4. Get a black eye, maybe by getting punched in the face. Please don't punch me the next time you see me.
5. Get a tan.
6. Live on an avocado farm. Or own one.
7. Get Lasik eye surgery.
8. Be involved in humanitarian aide on every continent.

8 Places I want to visit
1. Portland, Oregon. This is about 4 hours by car from where I live now. I don't know why I haven't gone yet.
2. Alaskan cruise. Again, quite doable considering where I live.
3. China. I have loved every person from China that I have ever met so I imagine this to be a country full people with whom I would get along quite nicely.
4. Stockholm, Sweden. Preferably sometime in the next 18 months so I can see my parents the awesome senior missionary couple.
5. Devil's Pool, Victoria Falls, Africa.
6. The Celestial Kingdom. Except I would replace "visit" with "live".
7. The Appalachian Trail. Except I would replace "visit" with "hike it."
8. Glacier National Park, Montana.

8 Favorite restaurants
1. Cafe Rio. I could move back to Utah just to be close to a Cafe Rio.
2. The Saffron Grill- an Indian restaurant one block from my house that I haven't been to in a year.
3. Cheesecake Factory. About 10 miles from my house that I have been to 3 times in the last 2 months.
4. My mom's kitchen. When I was little and had to sit at the kid's table, my mom would call it "The Restaurant" to make us feel special, so I think this is an appropriate categorization.
5. When my roommate cooks. I am now using the term "restaurant" even more loosely.
6. Any sushi restaurant where the little plates come around on a conveyor belt.
7. A Döner stand in Germany, preferably run by a large Turkish man.
8. The Crab Pot. Bibs, hammers, and cups of melted butter. Heaven.

8 Shows I watch
1. Lost. I am determined to make it through to the end of this show.
2. Project Runway. For a long time I thought this was a reality show about aviation so I never watched it.
3. Glee. Welcome back!
4. The Mary Tyler Moore Show. I find that I can really relate to her.
5. The Dick Van Dyke Show.
6. Parks and Recreation.
7. The Office. Mostly out of habit.
8. Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution- this is my current favorite show. It is quite awesome.

For Gracie

2010-02-25T22:26:00.000-08:00

*Read my sister-in-law's comment from my last post

Dear Gracie,

I'm so glad that you want to be an olympic bobsledder! In 2026, I'll be right there on the sidelines, cheering you on. You can do it, little buddy!

I love you!

:) Aunt Kristen

Bobsleigh

2010-02-25T00:57:00.000-08:00

I saw this a few times at Whistler. I'm not sure the proper usage of "bobsleigh" versus "bobsled" but it has a nice ring to it. As though I should use a European accent and say, "Oh yes, just let me fetch my bobsleigh."

As promised, a part two to my olympic posting. We had a long and exciting day in Canada. After the two and a half hour drive, we had to take another two hour bus ride to get to Whistler. The atmosphere at the ski resort was infectious.

It was also very cold and I spent more money than I anticipated buying a hat, gloves and an extra jacket. Sorry, Emily, unfortunately they weren't the iconic red Canadian mittens that are all the rage. The shops have been sold out of them for several days.

We took the gondola up the mountain to watch women's bobsledding. It was packed at the top but by the end of the first heat, we worked our way up to the closest spectator spot. This was my favorite part. I loved watching them get ready, get a few final words from their coach, and perform their pre-race rituals which usually involved grunting and hitting each other. I'm glad to say no one wiped out all night yesterday, which was unfortunately not the case tonight.

This will give you an idea of how close we were. Wow! By the way, these ladies from Japan may not have won a medal but they should win a prize for the most beautiful sled.

We worked our way down the mountain, getting to watch the sleds zoom by at different parts of the course.

Here is the jumping picture I mentioned in my last posting. Marissa was the reason I went to Vancouver the first time and kindly let me buy her extra bobsledding ticket for our second trip.

Okay, I probably spent an inappropriate time working on this last picture but I sure had fun with it. If you haven't already seen it on my facebook profile, here it is again.

Well, we scoured the NBC footage of the event and I'm sad to say that I don't think we made it but hopefully I have presented you with sufficient evidence to assure you that I was indeed there.

I LOVE THE OLYMPICS!

Vancouver Twenty-Ten!

2010-02-16T14:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, first of all, sorry these pictures are huge but I can't seem to figure out how to do the whole click-on-the-picture-and-make-it-bigger thing. So I just made them big to start with.

I went to Vancouver with some friends yesterday and it was fabulous. We didn't go to any events but got to soak up the olympic culture.

We stood in line for almost an hour to go to the olympic superstore, which seemed a little ridiculous but we sure wanted our souvenirs. I got this shirt which I felt captured the Canadian olympic spirit while being tastefully understated. Unfortunately, caught up in the excitement, I failed to properly read the label and consequently bought a man's medium instead of a woman's medium. By the time I realized how large it was, we were far from the store and may I remind you that took an hour of waiting in line to even get in the store. Definitely not going back.

I just googled, "how to shrink a t-shirt" and we'll see how it goes.

We saw some of the arenas and then went to the waterfront. Seeing the Olympic Torch was a much more inspiring sight than I imagined. It is huge! Bigger than my shirt! Also, there were tons of people around and they were all so nice.

I love my jumping pictures! We got a better jumping shot of my buddy Marissa and I but it is on her camera. I'll try to get it later. The city was giving away these Canadian flags because it was Flag Day which was perfect timing for our photo frenzy. We must have gotten some of the last ones because everywhere we went people were asking to borrow our flags for their pictures.

We got home late and watched Tivo'd olympics until really late. I have to say that I wasn't super excited about the olympics until yesterday but now I'm hooked!

So, hopefully, this will just be Part I of my olympic blogging. I may get the chance to go to bobsledding next week at Whistler.

Go team!

The Seven Year Itch

2010-01-23T16:14:00.000-08:00

I probably should've suspected something was wrong when I woke up at 5 Saturday morning because my feet were itching so badly. After a string of night shifts, I had stayed awake all day in order to switch my sleeping schedule back to normal. So, in my sleep-deprived state, being awoken after 4 hours of sleep may give you an idea of how itchy my feet were. I gave them a good scratching, slathered on some lotion and went back to sleep for an hour or so.

I had signed up for an all day disaster relief training with the Red Cross. As the training started, the itching spread from my feet to my arms and legs. Luckily, my roommate who is also a nurse was sitting next to me. I rolled up my sleeves and asked her if it looked like hives to her (it is always so much harder to diagnose yourself). The rapidly appearing red splotches made it clear I was having some sort of allergic reaction. I itched like a 4 year old with chicken pox until our lunch break when I was able sneak away and buy some Benadryl. While it eased the itching, it did not help what was already an uphill battle to stay awake during the long and monotonous video segments.

Well, at the end of the day, I was trained to work in a relief shelter and I was also convinced that I was allergic to the antibiotic my doctor had put me on for a minor skin infection. I channeled my inner Sister Missionary yesterday wearing my longest skirt and highest blouse and now, thank goodness, the hives are all but gone.

So I guess I should just call it the seventy-two hour itch.

Honesty is it's own reward

2010-01-15T14:46:00.001-08:00

Just talked to overstock.com- they are going to charge my account.

Untitled

2010-01-14T20:45:00.000-08:00

I couldn't think of a title because these things have nothing to do with each other. But I figure that is the beauty of blogging. You can literally write whatever you want. So, here we go.

Last week, I had a dream that I was a pirate and I had to protect my loot from some nefarious thieves. It was awesome, first, because I felt like I watching an action movie with me as the star which is a big improvement from my normal dreams where I am at work. Secondly, it was awesome because the dream resolved (I won!) just before my alarm went off. I woke up feeling completely satisfied with my night even though I only got a few hours of sleep.

Yesterday, the world came crashing down on me. I had to find some more push pins to put it back on my wall.

Confession: this didn't really happen to me but I read it somewhere and thought it was funny. Also I do have a large map of the world in my bedroom and I figure that it is only a matter of time before it does fall down.

I bought a white blouse last Saturday. Late that night, I realized that it still had the antitheft

ink tag on it. I really wanted to wear it the next day to church so I had to weigh my options. I decided not to try to take it off myself as I'm sure that would have resulted in an explosion of ink. I ended up just wearing the blouse, ink tag and all.No one else knew because it was under a dress but occasionally I would bump against something and suddenly remember that I had a cone-shaped piece of plastic protruding from my side. In case you were wondering, I took it back to the store the next day and had it removed.

Recently, both a Jimmy John and a 5 Guys have opened within a mile of my house. My new motto- twenty-ten, the year of thin (yeah, I know, it doesn't quite rhyme) is facing some serious temptation.

I am obsessed with my new ukulele. With some of my Christmas money

(thanks mom and dad!), I bought a ukulele and 4 weeks worth of lessons. I originally bought the purple one you see below from a company that I won't name. I totally

loved this ukulele! Unfortunately, after they had charged my account, I got an email saying that they were out of stock and they were going to refund my account. I was bummed but found this ->

ukulele at a local music store which is also very nice. We began to make beautiful music together and I was happy. THEN today I

came home to find this huge box on my doorstep. It was the

purple ukulele!! (I still don't know why they used such a big box) I checked my bank account and they hadn't recharged me. Theoretically, I could do nothing and maybe get it for free, but I don't roll like that. I'll call tomorrow to see what the situation is. I'm hoping it will turn out like in high school when I would point out to my calculus teacher that he hadn't marked enough points off my test and he was so impressed with my honesty that he just let me keep the points.

Waste Not, Want Not

2010-01-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

My parents are moving 1000 miles away, which is mostly good because it is a lot closer to me but a little sad because I really love that house. Over Christmas, my mom mentioned that I still had several large tubs in my old room. I thought it may be helpful in their moving process if I tried to cut down on the stuff they had to lug to Utah. However, as I went through my childhood memories, I struggled to get rid of anything. Even though most of these things I haven't seen or thought about in several years, when I was actually faced with the decision of whether to save it or not, I suddenly turned into a sentimental fool.

Of course there was the normal photo albums, debate trophies and cross-stitches but I thought I might share with my faithful blog readers some of the more eccentric items I found:

- Intergalactic Cow Day t-shirt, circa 1992

- A foley catheter insertion kit from my nursing school days (I actually did throw this away)

- "If You Give an Armadillo a Pizza"- my original short story from third grade that got an A+

- 14 Donny and Marie LP's with matching record player

- Roggenvolkornbrot- Canned bread from communist-era east Germany, given to me by a member while I was on my mission. I'm told that it has enough preservatives to last for another 50 years.

- A dolphin toothbrush that had been boiled and bent into a bracelet. I almost wore it back to Seattle until I remembered that it wasn't 1996 anymore. Man, I miss 7th grade.

This is just off this top of my head. There was tons of stuff like this in there. Why do I keep this

stuff? Part of me says, you never know when you might need it. But seriously? Will there ever come a time when I will suddenly have a need for the dried corsage that I wore to my brother's wedding eight years ago? Doubtful. But I'll keep it anyway.

What does this say about me? Mostly I think it says that I have been very blessed. That I had a happy childhood full of good memories. That I have good parents who helped me develop talents. That I went to schools that helped me reach my full potential. That despite normal growing pains, I have loved my life. And that makes me excited for my future life. I still have tubs to fill.

Maybe in another 10 years, I'll be able to part with some of these gems but for now I'm content to be a packrat. And if you comment on my blog, I'll keep it forever.

Desperately seeking signs from my dryer

2009-12-20T20:22:00.001-08:00

Today when I was folding my laundry, I noticed that each of my socks had a mate. This has never happened to me before. I am taking it as a good omen for my love life.

Older than I've ever been

2009-12-13T22:15:00.000-08:00

I thought I would give you a little sampling from my birthday. Now, here are people that know me well. My parents sent me this flower bouquet that looks like a Christmas tree. Beautiful! If you know me at all, you know that I love Christmas. If you don't know me and just stumbled onto my blog by clicking on a link on someone else's page (which I am totally fine with because I do that all the time), let me tell you something about myself. My dream job would be Mrs. Claus.

Well, I obviously have something else in my hands. My roommate has a membership to Sam's Club and whenever I go with her, I am inexplicably drawn to this large bucket of cheese puffs. I'm not sure why. It is not like cheese puffs are my normal snack of choice. Maybe it's because it looks like a big jar of warm fuzzies. Anyway, Camille kindly purchased it for me for my birthday. Along with this card, which makes me laugh like crazy. (If you can't read it, it is nurses in a Urology department, answering the phone and saying "Urology department. Can you hold?")

Well, there is more I could say about my birthday but this isn't my journal. Also, I feel like the most popular blogs are the ones with pictures of cute kids so here is my contribution. My sweet niece Rachel being tickled into oblivion by my sister.

Peace out, internet.

My New Favorite Movie

2009-11-29T18:00:00.000-08:00

I love these kids!

Traumatic Halloweenn

2009-11-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

Luckily I did not get into a car accident on my way to the Halloween party. Otherwise, it may have resulted in a very confusing and slightly embarrassing situation.

Ich freue mich!

2009-11-09T19:03:00.000-08:00

I am way behind on posts but here is a little something from today. To celebrate 20 years since the fall of the Berlin wall, I made German chocolate cupcakes for FHE dessert. Also, I downloaded "99 Luftballons" from iTunes. I have absolutely no memory of this day 20 years ago. But I have lots of memories of living in Germany for 18 months and meeting the good people of that land for whom this day changed their lives.

Wait

2009-10-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

I never really considered myself a heavy sleeper until today. I came home from my night shift this morning and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up around 4 in the afternoon, I walked out of my room, then stopped in my tracks.

My thought process went something like this:

Wait, where is our furniture?

Wait, did we get robbed?

Wait, only Stacey's furniture is missing.

Wait, she does have a key and was going to move her stuff out.

then...

Wait, someone was moving furniture out of the house 20 feet away from where I was sleeping and I didn't even wake up?

I've decided to be a little bit concerned about this.

A fair to remember

2009-09-23T17:34:00.000-07:00

I have actually gone to two fairs in the last month. They are so much fun! I especially enjoyed my first ever rodeo. I picked up some not-exactly-country boots from DI and was ready to go. I was mesmerized by the rodeo even though I didn't quite get what was going on. Luckily my Wyoming-native roommate was there to talk me through the different events. That weekend I also went to an all day clogging workshop and came to the conclusion that I am just a want-to-be hick.

A ride on the ferris wheel on a cool summer evening made it all the more enjoyable!

Okay, confession time. Have you ever been to one of those cooking shows at the fair? These pots may just be about the most amazing thing and I may have spent a lot of money on a set. They warrant their own post which will come after I get them in the mail. :)

Oh and this is not at the fair but I am going to post this picture anyway. My roommates and I went to see Wicked. It was magical! I had a hard time not singing along with all of the songs.

Yea for my fun life!

Current Italian Soda Flavors

2009-08-31T15:19:00.000-07:00

*Almond

*Banana

*Blueberry

*Butter Pecan

*Caramel

*Cherry

*Chocolate Peanut Butter

*Coconut

*English Toffee

*German Chocolate Cake

*Irish Cream

*Kiwi

*Lime

*Mandarin Orange

*Mango

*Peach

*Pistachio

*Pina Colada

*Pumpkin Pie

*Raspberry

*Root Beer

*Strawberry

*Toasted Marshmallow

*Vanilla

*Watermelon

Mixing these flavors reminds me of the fun of having a big bag of Jelly Bellies. Only you drink it. Delicious. I may be going into business.

Before the end of the year, I resolve to...

2009-08-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

*Run this:

The Folsom to Sacramento half marathon. I'm hoping that training will be a little easier the second time around. It is also conveniently located only an hour away from the Johnstons. I will be so excited to see two of my sweet nieces and meet my newest little nephew.

*Take this:

I am pretty sure that I am going to go back to school next fall. At least sure enough that I am going to take the GRE by December. I would love to get a Masters in Public Health and the University of Washington has one of the best Public Health Schools in the nation.

*See this:

Well, I might as well have a fun goal, right? I am very excited to see this musical! It helps to have catchy music to listen to on my long runs and while I am making vocab flashcards.

I'm not done with you yet, 2009!

Dear Sister Bylund....

2009-08-02T08:17:00.001-07:00

In the last week, I have been transferring all my documents to my new laptop. Among other things, I found this video which I haven't seen in quite a long time. It makes me happy every time I see it. I just loved my mission. I can hardly believe this was four years ago!

PS- Watching this video also makes me miss the Briar House. Lots of happy memories there!

Guess What!

2009-07-27T11:02:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else have the tendency always to put a question mark after this phrase? I always have to remind myself that it isn't really a question but a command. But a period doesn't feel like appropriate punctuation either so I end up putting an exclamation mark.

Guess what I did on Saturday...

Climbed Mt Si for the second time this summer. It is always a great workout with an incredible view. Incidentally, I also learned quite a bit about computer science as I was hiking with 5 guys who all intern at either Microsoft or Amazon.

Guess who came to visit...

The Lindquists!! It has been more than a year since I have seen them so I was so happy to get a chance to catch up with them. They were just finishing a week of boating with their daughter and her friend.

Guess who's getting married...

My roommate, Stacey. Yea!!

Guess what I'm watching...

Harry Potter. As some of my friends were getting excited about seeing the new movie, I realized that I hadn't watched most of the earlier movies. In order to conform with popular culture, I am now making my way though the first five movies. I can't believe how long they all are! I am currently in the middle of number 3.

Guess what last night was....

My last night of working before my schedule switches. I've always dreaded going into work on Sunday nights, missing firesides and dinner with friends. After a year, I got my schedule changed so I don't have to work on Sunday anymore.

21 Reasons I Love My Family

2009-07-11T23:35:00.000-07:00

Did you know that I totally love my family? Well, I do. We had such a fun time in Pennsylvania last week. Here are favorite memories with each member of my family.

Dad: The first night of the reunion, my dad gave a lovely spiritual thought and then had us count off by our numbers. Since Bylund Team Numbers were his idea originally, it was fun to see them in action!

Mom: My mom made a fishing pond out the window of the cabin for the grand kids. They loved getting to use the fishing pole to "catch" their prize. I was excited to also get a turn to fish and love my patriotic hair band. :)

Carma (sister): We were in charge of making dinner Sunday night. We decided to make waffles. To make sure that we had enough, we mixed up almost the whole big box of Bisquick. It took over two hours to cook them all in the one waffle iron we had. But they turned out great.

Greg (brother-in-law): Our last day, we went to Six Flags. I love roller coasters almost as much as Greg. It is so fun to go on rides with him because of how excited he gets. Two thumbs up for Superman and the Joker's Jinx.

Thurman (nephew): The Lincolns brought their Wii and Thurman patiently talked me through how to play golf. He was also there to rejoice with me when I miraculously scored an Eagle.

Nico (nephew): When we were at the pool, I heard a Rambo-style cry and then something on my back. Nico was looking for a ride to the deep end of the pool and off we went. I love how much energy he has.

Eric (brother): I wish we would have had more time in DC so Eric could have gotten to visit all the sights that he wanted. Luckily, we were able to see his #1- the White House, even if it was from a distance.

Michelle (sister): One night after the kids went to bed, we were hanging out in the kid-free cabin and Michelle had the urge to play some of the games from our childhood. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and then Land, Sea, Air and to top it off, Hello Mr. Butterfly. So much laughter...

Dan (brother-in-law): While at Six Flags, we decided to take Anna on the log ride. Dan estimated where we could sit to get the least wet. Not sure how well that worked because we were totally soaked when we got off. It was a warm day so it actually felt great and luckily, Anna didn't seem to be bothered by it.

Anna (niece): I got to take Anna on a few rides at Six Flags, besides the log ride. She really wanted to go on the teacup ride. She wanted to know how we could make the cups spin and I explained that we would have to turn the wheel in the center. As soon as the ride started, she was cranking it for all she was worth. A girl after my own heart!

Rachel (niece): Rachel has always been kind of wary of me (as she is with most people). But in the pavilion before the family talent show, she suddenly warmed up to me and we had a great time playing and jumping from one picnic table to the next.

Kevin (brother): Kevin never disappoints when he pulls out his juggling equipment. His clever routine involved a "walk through the zoo" and imitating several animals while juggling. My favorite was the ape. My description couldn't do it justice so let's just say it was funny!

Emily (sister-in-law): Despite, a several year hiatus from clogging, Emily was able to learn the dance in one evening. The Sunshine Cloggers debuted at the first ever Bylund Bash Talent Show. I hope we have more performances in the future.

Grace (niece): When talking to Gracie about her new house, she said, "Yes, we have a new house. Do you want to come see it?". I said that I did and she said, "Okay, how about you come tomorrow." I told her if I went tomorrow, she wouldn't be there because she would still be at the reunion. Undeterred, she replied, "Okay, I will drive up tomorrow, too."

Anne (niece): I loved watching Annie at the swimming pool. She loves being in the water and looked so cute in her little polka dot swimsuit. Her thunder thighs didn't stop her from taking a few steps (while holding her daddy's hands) in the kids pool.

Jenny (sister): One of Jenny's great family reunion idea was to have people memorize the Gettysburg Address. Even though I didn't have it memorized when I got to the reunion, Jenny convinced me that it wasn't too late. I spent a couple of hours one morning memorizing it and it was a very positive experience.

Aaron (brother-in-law): Some of us decided to run the Firecracker 5K course. Despite having run a half marathon only a week before, the hills of Pennsylvania proved very difficult for me. Even though I know he could have run faster, Aaron ran with me and distracted me from the pain by talking about the Civil War as we ran past the different monuments.

Spencer (nephew): When making smores, I helped Spencer roast a marshmallow and put it together with graham crackers and chocolate. This little guy knows what he wants- he pulled out the chocolate, ate it and went looking for more. When his dad said, "You sure love chocolate. Do you get that from your mom?", Spencer replied, "No, I got it for me".

Joshua (nephew): This is the happiest baby I have ever seen. Despite clogged tear ducts that results in perma-tears on his cheeks, he is all smiles. I loved watching the other grand kids play peek-a-boo with him and never failing to get a giggle.

Emily (sister): Emily and I have loved Family Feud since we were kids. I stayed with her for a few days before the reunion and we made a point to watch the show each night. Even better, we found an online version and spent several hours delighting in our awesome skills.

Richie (brother-in-law): When everyone lined according to their family number, most of the in-law were towards the lower number end. But since Emily and Richard were just married a year ago, he was at the other end surrounded by babies.

This Seemed Like a Good Idea Three Months Ago

2009-06-28T17:55:00.000-07:00

I saw this on one of the t-shirts for sale at the Rock n' Roll Expo this weekend before the half marathon. Well said! It did seem like a good idea back in January when I signed up. But at the starting line Saturday morning, I definitely had the jitters. Luckily I was running with Lindsay and Christy who are both awesome! We started off in a pacing group that would finish us in 2 hours 22 minutes and so we were wearing signs on our backs that said 2:22. That worked pretty well for the first 8 miles or so but then we started lagging behind. I told the girls that I couldn't commit to that time anymore and ripped the sign off my back.

The last four miles were pretty tough. Each mile seemed to double in length but near the end there were people everywhere on the sidelines cheering us on. I have never had so much positive feedback while running. Of course, some of the people might have been cheering for the other 25,000 runners who were participating. As you may guess, it was rather congested most of the time.

Lindsay was so great in encouraging me- especially the last couple of miles. I don't know why 13 miles was so much harder for me than the 11 miles run I did a couple of weeks ago but I was really struggling towards the end. When we finally crossed the finish line, I didn't feel the rush of euphoria that I had been dreaming of. I kind of just felt like dying instead. Lindsay looked at me and said, "You look really pale. Are you okay?" I did feel a little woozy. Luckily, Lindsay had a gel pack which she shoved down my throat and I felt better. I tried not to notice the first of the full marathon runners that were coming in at about the same time we did. Granted they started a half hour earlier but still! We did finish in 2 hours and 26 minutes which was pretty close to the pacing group we started with and more importantly was under our goal time.

I was very sore after. I went back with Lindsay and Stephanie to their apartment where I had left my car. Stephanie took pity on me and got my purse so I wouldn't have to hobble up the stairs.

Well, as soon as my legs forgive me, I'll start running again. For now, I am looking forward to a fun week of family fun on the east coast!

Sailing and Sunset

2009-06-03T22:05:00.000-07:00

Today was a great summer day. In the morning, Camille and I met up with our new friend Nick. He lives on his sailboat and took us out on it. I don't recall that I have ever gone sailing before and I had such a fun time. I asked Nick if I could be the AS1, which would be first assistant sailor. I didn't have very many responsibilities but a couple of times, when he asked me to pull on a line, I did it and quite well, if I do say so myself.

Here I am on the sailboat. I wanted to do my best Bob Wiley imitation... "I'M SAILING! I AM SAILING!!"

Here, Camille and I are pulling up the sail. It is harder than it looks.

Okay, this was seriously cool. When we got back to the marina, Nick asked if I wanted to go up the mast. Um, yes! So I put on a harness and he pulled me up.

Here is our little boating group and the boat's name is Genevieve.

Tonight my roommates and I went and watched the sunset from the beach. It was seriously so beautiful. Here we are!

Weekend O' Fun

2009-05-30T15:42:00.000-07:00

Well, it is about time that I blogged about Emily's visit last weekend. Our Saturday included the Folklife festival and a late lunch at the Space Needle.

Then the Ride the Ducks Tour

We finished the day by getting pedicures and going to the Mariners game.

On Sunday, we went to church and I showed Emily the sights of Seattle (the Temple, the troll under the bridge and the beach) and then we had a little dinner party.

Monday, we were up early to go hiking on what turned out to be a very snowy trail. We took the Bremerton ferry, ate at Dick's (a Seattle favorite) and had FHE at our house.

Tuesday morning before I took Emily to the airport, we went kayaking at Lake Union. It was a beautiful day!

As you can see, I don't have that many pictures from the weekend because most of the pictures we took with Emily's camera. So I guess we will have to wait until Emily blogs to see the rest of them (hint, hint Emily).

It was so fun to have her come visit! Thanks for coming sis!

Root beer

2009-05-18T22:31:00.000-07:00

I was at a ward activity on Saturday and someone told me that it was the anniversary of the day that root beer was invented. How great is that? I just love root beer and I'm so happy that there is a day to honor it. My roommate and I wen to Target and bought the really good root beer- you know the kind in glass bottles. I told the checker about it and gave him a bottle. Then last night at work, I bought root beer floats for all the nurses.

Here's to you, root beer. Thank you for being so delicious! May I never let another May 16th go by without rejoicing in your awesomeness.

The new digs!

2009-05-18T08:33:00.001-07:00

As promised here are some pictures of our new home. It is a fourplex with our own entrance and quite the upgrade from our last apartment. Here is the living room. We kept our humongous tv- it seemed to fit the retro style of the house. And luckily we have some nice young men in the ward who moved it for us.

Here is the view of the living room from the other side. Now you can see my little music corner. That stool is doing double duty. Sit one direction to play the keyboard and the other to play the harp.

Here is the kitchen and breakfast nook, what you see when you first come up the stairs.

Our wine cellar and bar. It will still be used, even if not for the exact purpose it was intended.

So, I may have gone a little overboard buying glasses from Goodwill but it will sure be fun to serve Martinellis and Italian sodas in them.

Our sunroom, with a lovely view of interstate 5. No more checking traffic on the computer before I leave for work, now I just look out the window.

View number one of my room.

And view number two.

Well, I left out a lot of things like the hot tub and the huge closets but you get the idea. It is surely a fun place to live.

Sick Day

2009-05-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

I called in sick to work today. No, I don't have swine flu. But I didn't think that my patients would appreciate me sneezing and coughing all over them. The thing is that I've never called in sick to anything before. I kind of have mixed feelings about it. I feel a little guilty for not going to work even though I know that I would just be spreading germs. Mostly, though, it is awesome. Not only do I get a night off but I am actually getting paid for sitting at home, drinking my blueberry tea and watching a documentary on Walmart. One of those perks to having a grown-up job.

Conversations with Anna

2009-05-04T21:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a sampling of little talks I had with my 4 year old niece in California last week.

*Anna on Good and Evil
(We are talking about a movie)
Anna: And those guys were very bad.
Me: Why were they so bad?
Anna: Because they didn't listen to Jesus.

*Anna on Health and Beauty
Anna: (while watching me get ready) What is that?
Me: This is lip gloss. Do you want to try some?
Anna: Oh yes! (I put a little on her)
Me: See, it makes your lips shiny.
Anna: Yeah! Before my lips were zero shiny and now they are eight shiny!
(Anna likes to give everything a numeric measurement).

*Anna on Marriage
Anna: Can I tell you who I am going to marry?
Me: Yes, please.
Anna: I am going to marry Jonah because he is older than me and I like him so much. Who are you going to marry?
Me: I don't know. Do you want to help me decide?
Anna: Yeah! (we look at pictures of my facebook friends)
Me: Who do you think I should marry?
Anna: This one! Now what you should do is send him a computer message that says, "I will marry you."

I sure love my little buddy!

Tulips, tulips, and more tulips!

2009-04-22T23:36:00.000-07:00

Remember how I love Seattle? I am always surprised by how many interesting things there are to do around here. Today I went to the 26th annual tulip festival in Skagit Valley.

We had a fun time walking around the fields of tulips. There were at least 88 varieties of tulips, as well as daffodils, hyacinths, crocus and iris. I had no idea that there were so many different types of tulips or that there were so many of them in one place (outside of Holland anyway).

I so enjoy being out in nature. It was really quite a lovely way to spend Earth Day.

Pleasing my Public...

2009-04-12T22:36:00.001-07:00

Sorry for posting twice on the same day. I just discovered that three people had asked for my pumpkin pancake and buttermilk syrup recipe. I honestly just got the recipe off the internet but here are the links if you are interested.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Pumpkin-Pancakes/Detail.aspx
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Buttermilk-Syrup/Detail.aspx

Easter!!

2009-04-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

When I found out that my ward was going to be having a smorgasbord after church on Easter, I immediately signed up to bring a dessert. Mostly so I could have an excuse to make this:

That's right! It's the traditional Bylund Easter cake. Smother a cake with green frosting and coconut, throw on some Starburst jellybeans and top it off with some peeps that no one ever eats. The only thing that was missing was Easter poppers and if you know what those are, then you are probably in my immediate family.

Today was also wonderful because we had such a lovely sacrament program full of readings and special musical numbers. I can hardly believe how much musical talent is in our ward. It makes me extra self conscious about playing the organ, knowing there are all those musicians out there. I don't think I will ever get over my organ jitters.

We sang "O Savior, Thou Who Wearest a Crown" for the sacrament hymn. During the singing I was just trying to hit as many of those eighth notes as I could and wasn't really paying attention to the words. But during the sacrament I started reading the text. It seemed to reflect those feelings for which I have a hard time expressing. Especially these lines:

What praises can we offer to thank thee Lord most high? In our place thou didst suffer; In our place thou didst die.

I am so grateful for my Savior. He is risen!

Filling in the family tree...

2009-04-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

One thing that was sad for me about moving to Seattle was that I wouldn't have any family here. When I was going to school in Utah, I was lucky to to have a lot of my extended family close by. While I have made many lovely friends, there is nothing like family.

Well, it just so happens that one of my lovely friends is named Layne. He recognized my last name as his grandmother's maiden name. We did a little research and I was excited to discover that we are second cousins! His grandmother is my grandfather's sister. Beacause my dad grew up in Pennsylvania, he didn't know his cousins (including Layne's mother) very well.

I guess when your parents and your grandparents all come from large families, you will never be far from a cousin!

How to have a great General Conference weekend

2009-04-05T15:16:00.000-07:00

First start off Friday night by driving to Bellingham with fun people. Eat yummy pizza and relax in the hot tub before bed.

Saturday morning, run a 15K with Lindsay along beautiful Birch Bay.

Make sure to bring along some lovely cheerleaders to encourage you along the way.

Then rejoice when you finish the 9.3 mile course.

Watch some conference that afternoon and maybe cry a little at Elder Scott's talk.

Then go to the Relief Society book club and discuss "My Antonia"...even if you didn't finish the book. Feel a little nostalgic for Nebraska.

That night, go see "The Sound of Music" at the local community theater. Feel a little nostalgic for Austria.

Sunday morning, have friends over. Make traditional General Conference breakfast (pumpkin pancakes with buttermilk syrup) and enjoy watching conference in your pajamas.

Then, if you _have_ to go to work Sunday night, at least you've already have a slamming awesome weekend. :)

How I spent the rest of March...

2009-03-26T23:20:00.000-07:00

Here are some little tidbits from my life recently:

-I went hiking the other day and discovered that it is still a little early in the year for my beloved hiking sandals. After 4 miles, my feet were very muddy and very cold. Sorry toes!

-I had some Land o Lakes hot chocolate for the first time in years. It brought back many happy memories of Christmas mornings when a package of raspberry chocolate or mint chocolate was a stocking staple. So yummy...

-My running buddy got me a flippin' sweet present: a Nike Plus. I just hook it into my iPod and it tracks how far and how fast I run. It has given me a renewed love of running. Only three months until the half marathon!!

-I found out that "The Marriage of Figaro" will be performed by the Seattle Opera in May. I was so excited that I downloaded the album onto my iPod and have been listening to it ever since. The timing is perfect as I saw "The Barber of Seville" earlier this month. Now I just have to convince someone to come with me.

-Milkis is my new favorite drink. Those Koreans sure know how to make a soda!

Journal about Austria trip

2009-03-12T03:59:00.000-07:00

This post is more for my own benefit than for the entertainment of my readers but feel free to read it anyway.

Sunday
-We arrived early in the afternoon. After getting settled in our hotel, Carma and I took a walk through the old city. Despite the time difference and repeatedly getting lost, we had a great time wandering through the city. It was a beautiful clear day and had I known how rare that would be during the week, I would have enjoyed it even more.

Monday

-I took a Mozart tour of the city. It was a very informative tour and at the conclusion thereof, I received a voucher to visit the Mozart house where he lived for a large portion of his adult years. I met up with Carma for lunch. Afterward we had planned to go on a city tour which turned out to be the exact same tour I had taken in the morning except that there were no vouchers involved. It was still enjoyable and repitition is a great teacher. When Carma went back to her seminar, I went through the Mozart house, did some shopping and bought a ticket to Switzerland. After dinner, I went to bed early in anticipation of my trip in the morning.

Tuesday

-My train left at 6:30 in the morning. I had hoped to enjoy the view of the Alps on the my 7 hour train ride but unfortunately, it was too cloudy to see very far. Instead I watched a little "Lost" and read the highly recommended "A Walk in the Woods" to pass the time. I arrived in Zollikofen (just outside of Bern) an hour before I was to meet up with my former mission companion so I wandered around the town and came across the temple. What a happy sight! When Tamara finished work, she took me around Bern and we had a lovely dinner of fondue together before I had to leave. I had a hard time sleeping on the train through the night as I was so concerned about missing my stop and waking up in Prague. But when the train pulled into Salzburg at 4:30 am, I was awake and took a taxi back to the hotel where I promptly fell asleep.

Wednesday

-I woke up in time to get ready and have lunch with Carma. Afterward, it was time for the highly anticipated Sound of Music tour. There were a few other people on the tour but I think that Carma and I had the best time of anyone. We sang along with the soundtrack and snapped pictures at every stop. In the small villiage where the wedding scene was filmed, Carma and I found a charming Austrian clothing store where we couldn't resist buying an authentic drindl for our little niece who loves "The Sound of Music" so much that she insists on being called Gretel.

That night we attended a concert where the performers dressed in period clothing. They performed pieces from some of Mozart's operas. Due to a series of mix-ups, we ended up at the best table in the room. We were so close that I kept worrying I would inadvertently trip the singers as they moved through the room.
Thursday

-I spent the morning on a Bavarian salt mine tour. The drive through the mountains was beautiful, though I learned more about Hitler's occupation of Austria than I would have preferred.

The salt mines were so fun! We slid down large wooden slides into the mine and took a boat across a lake of fresh water (which leaches the salt from the mountain).

After lunch, it was raining so I walked around downtown and went in all of the old churches. They were so beautiful and I kept thinking of all the people who must have sacrificed so much for their love of God. That evening we were treated to a concert at our hotel. A violinist, a flutist and a pianist played selections from some of the great composers of Salzburg.

Friday
-I had been waiting all week for a clear day to take the cable car up to the Untersberg mountain. At this point my time was running out so I decided to go despite the cloudiness. It was very cold but I would have regretted not going. After 10 minutes at the top of the mountain in the snow, I was ready to go back.

Carma had the afternoon off so we explored the Salzburg fortress and then walked across the ridge to the Museum of Modern Art. The view from both locations were amazing. We treated ourselves to apple strudel and hot chocolate before making our way back. That night while Carma attended the seminar's closing events, I went to see "The Barber of Seville". The music and singing were incredible though I was taken aback by the costumes. The influence seemed to have come from the 1980's as Figarro showed up in black leather pants and a mullet (and riding a motorcycle no less).

Saturday

-Carma and I took an early train to Vienna. We had decided to do a hop-on-hop-off bus tour in order to maximize our short time there. Due to the high winds and fierce rain, we hopped on and enjoyed the city from the warmth of the bus. After the weather calmed down we walked around downtown and ate a charming little restaraunt where we naturally had weinerschniztel. We returned that night to Salzburg to pack. I found that I had acquired more possessions that I had realized during the week.

Sunday

-The Salzburg airport proved to be much easier to navigate than I expected. We flew to Frankfurt where we had a layover. Our mom and dad were scheduled to have a layover there at the same time. Unfortunately our cell phones didn't get any service and we had to imagine that we were participating in "The Amazing Race" in efforts to finally meet up with them at their gate. We had time only to say hello, share some chocolate, and show them Grace's drindl before they had to board their flight. Our flight back was much less crowded and equipped with more entertainment so the time passed quickly. The Lincoln boys were there to welcome us home. We were excited to watch "The Sound of Music" that night at Carma's apartment and point out all the places we had just been.

Runner's Knee

2009-02-11T00:22:00.000-08:00

The other day while I was running, I couldn't help noticing some nagging pain in my left knee. I thought to myself, 'Maybe I have runner's knee' which is someting that I had heard of but didn't know much about. So I went home and googled it- this is what came up:

One of the most common injuries among runners, runner's knee most often strikes as runners approach forty miles per week for the first time.

Okay...I definitely don't have runner's knee, I just need to stretch more before I start. I should be so lucky to have such a trendy physical ailment.

FYI

2009-02-01T21:23:00.001-08:00

If you run out of dishwasher detergent, using regular dish soap may cause excess bubbles.

Drive by Canada

2009-01-28T14:12:00.001-08:00

My roommate Camille and I decided to drive up to Vancouver for a visit since our days off overlapped. We made it up Monday evening, found a hotel, walked along the waterfront and ate yummy seafood. I had a bunch of fun things planned for Tuesday. Unfortunately we woke up that morning to find it snowing like crazy. And all of those fun things that I had planned involved being outside. So, needless to say we had to alter out plans a little.

This is how our trip turned into drive by Canada. It was too cold to get out of the car so we drove by interesting points and took pictures. Since I was driving, Camille took the pictures so I'll just give you a sample of the day. Here is one of the few times that we got out of the car. I really wanted to see this clock, the only steam powered clock in the world.

And to prove that we were actually there, here are some special Canadian snacks: ketchup chips and dill pickle chips. I had never either flavor before- very interesting.

To end the trip on a high note, we stopped at Walmart on the way home (there are no Walmarts in Seattle proper) where I bought a nightgown and 4 avacados. We'll have to go back in the springtime so we can finish my list of things to do in Vancouver.

This picture has nothing to do with Canada but I found it in my files. Since I never posted anything about my Christmas vacation, here I am with cute Gracie.

Snaps for Greenlake!

2009-01-24T16:44:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite places in Seatte and lucky for me, it is only a couple miles away. Besides being my training ground for the half marathon but I love it because it is like a mecca for Seattle runners.

Here are some of the interesting things I've encoutered there in the last week:

*A tightrope walker in training. I've seen this man a couple of times who ties a cable between two trees and...well, practices walking on it.

*Dancing roller-skating man. Today I running behind this guy who was wearing roller skates, the likes of which I haven't seen since my ninth birthday party at Skateland. He was skating backwards, kicking his legs up, and bopping his head around. The strange thing was he didn't appear to be listening to music. It was quite entertaining.

*Myself running 6 miles without stopping. Wahoo!

Running Amok

2009-01-05T17:35:00.000-08:00

Yesteday in Relief Society, one of the sisters mentioned that she was planning on running a half marathon in June. I thought to myself, "Oh, I've always wante to do that." Then I talked to her tonight at FHE and she got me all excited about it. Why not now? Why not me? I signed up on line and paid the fee so now I am committed. It actually sounds really cool. Here is the logo:

It has its name because along the route, there are bands playing and afterwards there is a big concert. Fun, right? Well, today I ran three miles- only a fraction of the 13 miles I hope to run in 6 months but its a start.

Baby it's cold out there!

2008-12-22T14:49:00.000-08:00

Seattle got hit with a lovely little blizzard this week. Snow goes a long way to making things really look like Christmas.

This picture is taken from the 11th floor of the hospital, where I work. It didn't turn out quite as well as I liked but it was just so beautiful with the snow falling in the still of the night. Also, work related- we are in a Code Delta, meaning that during any kind of natural or other disaster, nurses are legally required to stay at the hospital until our replacements can make it in. Yesterday morning after working all night, one of the nurses was having a hard time driving in so I ended up staying an extra 3 hours until she got there. That will be some nice overtime pay. Fortunately church was cancelled yesterday so that I was able to stay. Good thing- I would have looked mighty silly playing the organ in my scrubs.

Today, Camille and I braved the icy road to go sledding. By the way, my car Sheila is doing so great in the snow. Aside from a few minor sliding episodes, I really haven't had any trouble getting around. Camillie had some intertubes that we inflated and enjoyed a morning of sledding.

Recent Life

2008-12-16T13:54:00.000-08:00

If you looked at this post earlier, it just had the pictures on it. I had written out a narrative but somehow only the pictures got published. I will now retype what I had written before.

Since I haven't blogged in a few weeks, I thought I would give you the update on what I've been doing. This is basically 5 posts rolled into one. Enjoy!

*Happy Birthday!
Yes siree, I turned the big 25 last week. I had to work that night but we celebrated a little at the hospital. Then that weekend I went to PF Changs (yummy!) and to the Nutcracker with some friends. We had a great time. Downtown Seattle is so beautiful around Christmas time.

*Rear Window
Remember that old Alfred Hitchcock movie? Well, like Jimmy Stewart I was having some trouble with my rear window except it was in my car and the problem was not that I saw someone being murdered through it but that I couldn't open it. Sheila spent the night at the dealership (while I drove a 2009 outback loaner) and came back as good as new. This makes it much easier to move the harp as well as my meals on wheels deliveries (as seen below).

*Space Needle Santa
Normally I don't sit on Santa's lap or pay $15 for a picture of me sititng on his lap. Lucky for me, I have this great friend Stacey who works as a photographer at the space needle and took me and my roommate Camille there as her guests. She also gave us this photo to commerate the event.

*Gingerbread fun
Last night for FHE we decorated gingerbread houses. When I found out they were just planning on using graham crackers, I couldn't help but volunteer to make some real gingerbread. We had a great time. Here is Camille and I with our friend and fellow gingerbread decorator Carole.

*Dancing Queen

I recently clogged with my group (The Emerald City Cloggers) at the Great Figgy Pudding Street Corner Caroling Contest. We didn't win any prizes but I still had such great time. If you are interested in seeing more, here are the youtube links of our our performances:

Here Comes Santa Claus: www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAHDWQQgV3A

Frosty The Snowman: www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6DrDdhzSWM

Sleigh Ride: www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9gvfmcimC4

Mystery Caller

2008-12-08T16:13:00.000-08:00

Someone has been calling me recently and I kept missing their call. This caller has been very persistent, calling at least twice a day, everyday for the past week. It would always be while I was at clogging, or driving or sleeping and I couldn't answer. Everytime I would see this number under missed calls, my curiousity would increase. Today, I kept my phone at my side the whole morning, waiting in anticipation. When they finally called, I was so excited to answer and.....

I'm going to donate blood on Friday. The End.

Maggie

2008-11-28T06:16:00.001-08:00

Since I tend to stay up all night anyway, I decided to take advantage of the after Thanksgiving sales and get the one thing that I really wanted- a GPS navigation system. I found awesome deals on two models- the TomTom and the Magellan. I got some feedback from the Petersons and Lincolns who both have TomToms and enjoy them. Customer reviews seemed about the same for each of them so I decided to follow the family trend and get a TomTom. I got to the store about 4:30 and there were only a few people waiting in line so I sat in my car and read for 20 minutes before venturing out into the cold.

Once inside the store, I got in the special GPS line. To my dismay, they only had 4 TomToms and the person in front of me got the last one. What could I do? It never occured to me that they would only have 4 of them. I grudgingly asked for the Magellan. I have named her Maggie in an attempt to form a emotional bond.

It's a Thanksgiving Miracle!

2008-11-28T06:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with 11 people in attendance including people from the ward, 2 sets of Elders and one of their investigators. Unfortunately, we only have dining chairs for five. So after checking with my Bishop, I went to borrow some folding chairs from the institute. These are a little fancier that your average metal folding chairs and also a little heavier.

After parking on the street close to my apartment, I was dreading carrying all those chairs in. That's when I noticed, nestled between the dumpsters, a shopping cart. It was perfect! I loaded up the chairs and headed across the parking lot. I did have one small mishap due to an uneven sidewalk that caused the shopping cart to tip on its side and all the chairs to fall out. Well, what are you going to do?

Forgotten Carols

2008-11-20T12:55:00.001-08:00

Last night, I got to go to a performance of "The Forgotten Carols". I have loved this music for a long time but had never seen it performed. It didn't occur to me that the tour might come to Washington until a girl in the ward with an extra ticket sent out an email. I'm so glad that I got to go! It is a very sweet story- one that I first heard during our traditional "stories by the fire" when I was a kid.

My roommate also scored us tickets to the Nutrcracker in a few weeks. Now I just need to find a Handel's Messiah sing-a-long. I just love Christmastime!!

A few of my favorite things...

2008-11-15T01:51:00.000-08:00

*KenKen

I spent many a hours in my BYU days working my way through the Sudokus in the daily newspaper. After graduation, I wasn't sitting through hours of classes and consequently stopped my daily tradition. Then the other night, I had my Reader's Digest at work during a slow period and discovered this super fun new puzzle. It is like Sudoku except the numbers in the shaded boxes have to make the number in the corner using the function indicated. Here is an example. Unfortunately, I have yet to complete one correctly but I get closer everytime.

*High School Musical on Ice:

Now this is just good clean fun. I totally loved the movies, though I have yet to see the third one. I saw this event advertised last week and somehow I convinced my roommate to come with me. We stuck out a little among the shrieking pre-teens and long-suffering parents but I had a great time! Go Wildcats!!!

Right now my favorite things do not include the following:

*Having to cross a picket line to get to church

O Christmas Tree

2008-11-01T23:18:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, I know that it is only one day after Halloween but I am already super excited for Christmas. It is undoubtedly my favorite holiday of the year. I love it all, from the music to the decorations to the sappy Hallmark made for TV movies about people discovering the true meaning of Christmas.

Tonight I was practicing the organ for tomorrow and I started playing Christmas hymns. This isn't the first time this has happened but since it is November now, I felt justified in indulging myself. I pulled out the fake Christmas tree and German decorations and went to work. My roommate had a few ornaments but we're going to need some more. Good thing I didn't leave this to the last minute.

While You Weren't Sleeping

2008-10-08T21:34:00.000-07:00

Chances are while you weren't sleeping, I was now that I have become a person of the night. Unfortunately, my body has resisted my circadian switch a little more than I had expected. So in the hopes of a better night (day) sleep, tonight I bought a foam memory mattress pad. I mulled over the decision in Walmart for about a half an hour, trying to decide between the generic pad and the more expensive one.

I eventually bought the higher quality one. I love that it does this:

This obviously isn't my hand but you get the idea. I am very excited to go to sleep. End of post.

Filling My Time

2008-10-02T18:39:00.000-07:00

Well, even though I have a full-time job now, working three 12's a week still leaves me with quite a bit of free time between my shifts. I'm still getting used to not having to constantly study for exams in all my free time, although that is a very pleasant change. When I first moved, there was more than enough to keep me busy in getting settled in Seattle. Then my church calling as organist and hiking began taking up more of my time. But now that I am feeling more comfortable with the organ and it is getting too cold and rainy to hike, I have been looking for some other activities.

An evening with google, a few emails and phone calls later and here's what I've done.

My clogging shoes have sat quiet in my closet for far too long. I was so glad to find a clogging group here in Seattle. There are only about 6 people in my low-intermediate class but it was so much fun. We are currently preparing for a Christmas performance at Pike Place Market. Sweet!

I also wanted to find a good volunteer opportunity. There is a senior center not too far north of me that desperately needed drivers to deliver food through their meals on wheels program. So now Sheila and I will get to spend some more time together and make new friends.

Last week, I changed to night shifts so I am getting used to a new schedule anyway. And these acitivities should fit in just fine.

Lake Serene

2008-09-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

Wow, two posts about hiking in a row! I'll have to find some other things to blog about. A nurse at work lent me a book about hiking around Seattle and I couldn't resist checking this hike out. It was a pretty intense hike with a hours worth of steps (both man-made and granite) at the end but the view was supposed to be totally worth. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy.

I got this picture from google- this is what the view was supposed to be:

Here is how it looked for me:

It was still a lovely way to spend the day. While I was hiking, I finally listened to "The Last Lecture" which was very inspiring.

A little side story. Due to the weather, there weren't very many people on the trail. But when I got to the top, there was a group of hiking grannies (and thus ends my complaints about how hard the trail was). The first thing they said when they saw me, was "You hiked all the way up here in those?!"

The "those" they were referring to were these:

My hiking Chaco sandals which I bought at the Seattle REI at one of my pre-move visits with the help of my REI expert cousin Leslie. Honestly, these have been the best shoe investment of my life. They are so great for hiking. I've broken them in so they are very comfortable and I find them superior to shoes and socks especially when you have to cross creeks (wet socks= miserable).

But I guess I'll have to hang up my hiking sandals until things clear up a little more.

Wallace and Gromit Falls

2008-09-14T15:41:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went on the most beautiful hike. It is actually just called Wallace Falls but I have a hard time separating those two names. Here is a picture of the falls. Just lovely!

My only complain was about a half an hour into the two and a half hour hike, I stumbled on a rock (clumsy, clumsy) and rolled my ankle. It hurt pretty bad and I was bummed because I really wanted to finish the hike. So I said a prayer and sat down on a rock for a few minutes. When I got back up, my ankle was still tender but I was able to make it to the top without any more problems. In fact the longer I hiked, the better it felt. By the time I came back down, it actually felt pretty good and I was convinced that I wouldn't have anymore trouble with it.

The awkward self-taken picture to prove that I was really there:

Wallace Falls is about an hour northeast of Seattle. When I got back to my apartment, I stepped out of the car and immediately winced in pain. My ankle must have stiffened up on the way back because it was hurting again pretty bad. Luckily, after a little ice and elevation, it seems to be fine. The few moments of pain were a small price to pay for such a gorgeous view!

Organ Donor

2008-08-31T23:21:00.000-07:00

Since starting my job, I have spent a lot of time with patients who have had organ transplants and I am of course designated as an organ donor on my drivers license. But now I have a whole different type of organ to appreciate:

That's right friends- today I was set apart as the ward organist. Apart from a few informal lessons, I have no prior experience. I got a few hints from my mom and sister ( http://johnstonjive.blogspot.com/2008/06/day-in-life-of-organist.html) who are vetran organists but I still have a lot to learn.

The chair and the game

2008-08-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

I've been looking for an armchair for my room. I finally got this one for free off of craigslist. It is pretty worn but it was the right size and very comfortable.

So three yards of fabric later and I have a chair that actually matches my room. I've never reupholstered a chair before and actually I still haven't. This was just draping new fabric over the chair. Right now it is mostly being held together by safety pins so it is a good thing that I have another day off tomorrow to finish the job.

Oh and we went to a Mariners game the other night. When we got there, they were losing 6 to zero but they came back to win it after scoring 10 runs in one inning! It was pretty darn exciting.

As requested, a post about work...

2008-08-01T11:49:00.000-07:00

This is me. I am a nurse!

I work on the 11th floor of this very large hospital

The people that I take care of have trouble with these.

When I come home, I amsuper tired but I sure love my job.

More to come!

WANTED:

2008-07-24T18:28:00.000-07:00

I recently opened a bank account with a bank which shall remain nameless. After having some trouble with my ATM card, I went in the bank to find out what the problem was.

Two hours with the bank manager and I was informed that I had essentially stolen $500 and was under investigation.

Let me 'slpain. When I opened my account, the banker accidentally gave me the wrong ATM card. Of this I had no idea, and over the course of a few weeks, I withdrew $500 (since I hadn't received my checks or debit card yet). I knew I had enough in my account so I didn't bother getting a receipt and didn't realize anything was wrong.

However, the account holder did realize something was wrong and filed a claim with the police, who when I went into the bank were trying to find out who was using her card. Poor lady. Well I withdrew the money from my account and deposited into hers and the bank informed the claims department that it was their mistake so everything seems to be cleared up now.

Better that it happened this way instead of the cops banging on my door.

The Seattle Scene

2008-07-13T15:13:00.000-07:00

Here I am in Seattle. Wahoo! Mom helped me move out and get settled before she headed home (super big thanks mom!!).

We have a lovely and spacious apartment that we have been making into a home. Here are some glimpses.

My roommate Camille- isn't she so nice to do the dishes?

Our best Craigslist find-the futon of my dreams...for free! And the man that we got it from was from Omaha. It was just meant to be. :)

Our worst Craigslist find- this vacuum must have been previously owned by a smoker because you can totally smell tobacco whenever we vacuum. I think we are on the market for a new one- at least we didn't pay for it.

Our most impulsive Craigslist find- 52" screen TV. I figured if we had bought a new TV, it probably would have been at least as expensive as buying this used one and it is really fun to watch movies on.

My Ikea dresser- a half an hour to drive to the store and three hours to put it together. There is a certain satisfaction from putting together your own furniture. And a certain frustration when you realize that you put it together wrong.

The view from our balcony. Can you see the sign among the trees? You have to look close....

That's right, friends- just hop over our balcony and you are just steps away from curly fries and roast beef sandwiches.

Alright, the reservations books are now open. Come see me!

Aunt DiDi Tour 2008: Hoboken, NJ

2008-06-29T18:43:00.000-07:00

Well, the great Aunt DiDi tour concluded on the east coast where I got to hang out with the Lincolns and the Petersons.

The newlyweds are as cute as ever.

Of course we played some Ruckus!

We made a last-minute decision to go to Six Flags on Saturday. By pooling our money for a Flash Pass, we were able to skip the lines and cram in as many roller coasters as possible. The roller coaster below is Kingda Ka, the tallest and fastest in the world. As a roller coaster enthusiast, I was in heaven!

Here is Thurman getting off one of the many rides that he could ride by himself!

We also managed to squeeze in a little Rock Band and I improved greatly. :)

And of course a Broadway show. After failing at the Wicked lottery 3 or 4 times, I got student rush tickets for "Legally Blonde". Emily and I enjoyed front row center seats.

I also took my NCLEX last Tuesday (the test to become a registered nurse). As probably most of the people reading this blog know, I have been studying for this for the last couple of months. After 75 questions (the minimum number of questions), the test shut off. I was so worried I had failed but a couple of days later, I saw that I had passed. It was a pretty unsatisfying testing experience but I am just relieved to have it done with and be able to get on with my life. Stay tuned for Kristen's big move to Seattle!

Credential	Last Name	First Name	MI	Credential Type	Status	Year of Birth	State	CE Due Date	Action
RN60023188	Bylund	Kristen	Marie	Registered Nurse License	ACTIVE	1983	UT		No

Aunt DiDi Tour 2008: St. Louis, MO

2008-06-19T17:32:00.000-07:00

This week, I write from St. Louis, the home of Kevin, Emily, Gracie, and LOTS of water. The Mississippi is 10 feet above flooding levels and is supposed to flood another 10 feet this week. Here is an example of things underwater. The lamp pole is supposed to have a road in front of it!

Happy moment in Missouri included:

*Emily teaching me how to change my blog layout.

*Stretching with Gracie

*Visiting the Arch

*Going up to the top of the Arch

*Going to the Childrens Museum (aka The Magic House). It sure is fun to have lots of hair!

*One night, Kevin and Emily had a super-duper suprise for me. A fifties night! They came out in bow ties and poodle skirts and this was my placemat:

*What fifties night would be complete without a sock hop?

It will sure be hard to say goodbye to my Bylund buddies!

Aunt DiDi Tour 2008: Savoy, Illinois

2008-06-15T14:24:00.000-07:00

Well, the next stop on my grand tour was visiting my sister and her family near the University of Illinois. Savoy is actually a villiage led by President Bob (see http://www.village.savoy.il.us/ for more details) Highlights of the week included:

*Hanging out with sweet Spencer

*Helping to repaint the kitchen cabients

*Attending Strawberry Jam Festival

*Celebrating Aaron's birthday and father's day

*Finally getting authorization to take my NCLEX and scheduling my test for a week from Tuesday

The low point was when I was tending Spencer and he tripped and scraped his forehead on the pavement. Sorry little guy!

Thanks to the Hills of Illinois for a fun week!

Aunt DiDi Tour 2008: Martinez, California

2008-05-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

Last week, I spent the week visiting my sister and her family in California. I had a great time playing with my sweet little nieces.

Who could resist this sweet face?

I won't be much closer to them after I move to Seattle, but we will be the only ones in the family on the west coast so I plan to visit them as often as I can.

Best Nursing Buddies!

2008-05-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

From right to left, Jessica, Megan, Heather and me. We have been great friends through the program. Among other things we have in common, we have all served missions. Megan, Heather and I started the program together in the fall of 2004. Megan left for her mission in Taiwan after our first semester and Heather and I both went on missions to Germany after our second semester. Jessica served in the Domican Republic right before she started. By our third semester, we were all together again and saw each other through.

Here are a couple of pictures just after convocation.

Graduation!

2008-05-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

Graduation was such a great memory. Mom and dad came in Wednesday night and stayed with my good friends, the Lindquists.

On Thursday, they joined Emily, Richard and I for the Honors Graduation Luncheon. I had been practicing with my little group for a few weeks and the special musical number went rather well. This is my favorite setting to play the harp- with vocalists and other instruments. Here is a little sampling.

Thanks for turning pages for me Emily!

Here we are enjoying our fancy lunch!

Commencement was a great with Elder Bednar speaking.

Our nursing convocation was so wonderful. Smaller than most with an emphasis on using our education for Christlike service. Here I am actually graduating. A tradition in nursing is to get "pinned" in addition to receiving a diploma. I got pinned by Sondra, my Critical Care instructor from fall semester. My other hug is with Vickie, my capstone instructor from this past semester. I have just loved all of my instructors- they have been so great!

It was so much fun to graduate with my sister Emily and her new husband Richard. Here are a few of our awesome pictures.

In front of the Spencer W. Kimball Building, where I had nearly all of my nursing classes.

Thanks mom and dad for all of your support during college!

A few more pictures from Maryland

2008-05-10T09:43:00.001-07:00

I just got some pictures from the girls that I went to Maryland with last month so I thought I would add a few more pictures.

Here I am in front of the University where the research conference was being held.

They hired a sand sculptor to create this work of art on the sidewalk. It was fun to watch him.

My friend Alicia and I found ways to pass the time between sessions.

We went to Ocean City for a afternoon. I just had to feel the water. Of course, my jeans ended up getting soaked. I just never learn. :)

Kristen, SN BYU

2008-04-17T18:25:00.000-07:00

I just got back from volunteering at the Utah County Health Department free clinic. Besides being a very rewarding service opportunity, it was significant for another reason. It was the last time that I wore my student nurse uniform. Since September of 2004, I have been wearing the standard blue scrub pants and white top with my nametag. I can clearly recall my first clinical and how I ironed my scrub top the night before to make sure it looked crisp and professional. Quite a contrast from tonight when I pulled my wrinkled top from a pile of dirty clothes and covered it with a sweater.

I couldn't help but feel nostalgic as I took off my student nurse nametag for the last time (just like I did when I took off my missionary nametag for the last time). There is something comforting about having the word "student" on your nametag. It is like saying, "Teach me, teach me, make sure that I get to see anything interesting and explain in detail what you are doing." New nametags await. Now I get to be responsible for all that information that I learned in my years as a student. I can't help but think that there will be times that I will wish that I could just put on my student nametag again.

Conference to coast to coast

2008-04-10T17:13:00.000-07:00

What a great week it has been! On Saturday, I got to go to General Conference with Jessica, a good friend from the nursing program. I don't anticipate that I will ever again live so close to Salt Lake City so I was really glad to be able to get tickets (thanks cousin Leslie!)

Early Sunday morning I flew to Seattle. What a fabulous city! I am really excited for the chance to live there. This isn't a great picture of me but you can see the beautiful view I had from the park down the street from where I was staying.

Lukcily, I didn't come away empty-handed. I got two job offers at the hospital where I was interviewing--one in medical/surgery and one in nephrology. Due to the high number of interviewees, I need to make my decision by tomorrow. Barring a revelatory dream tonight, I am planning on taking the job in nephrology. Now all I need is a place to stay. :)

And now I'm in Maryland. It is very lovely! I presented my poster this morning at the National Conference for Undergraduate Research. We are planning on going to Ocean City tomorrow night and possibly DC on Saturday. I'm so lucky to get to travel so much!

You can probably see that the top of my poster looks rather jagged. My professor had brought my poster along with another girl's who presented also. When we tried to unroll the poster this morning, it was sticking to itself. It must have gotten wet and then dried to itself (which is strange because it was in a waterproof canister). It ripping and tearing as I unrolled it so I just tried to cut off the top few inches since that is where most of the damage was. Oh well, most of it was okay.

Skedaddle to Seattle!

2008-03-28T14:42:00.000-07:00

So this morning, I had a great interview with my top-choice hospital in Seattle. They really like me and are strongly considering hiring me. The only problem is that they are interviewing all of their candidates in the next two weeks...much earlier that I was planning on coming out. Well, to make a long story short, I found a great deal on a flight from Salt Lake to Seattle a week from Sunday. I'll just stay a couple of days, flying home Tuesday night. My flight back to Salt Lake lands exactly 8 hours before I fly to Maryland (early Wednesday morning) for the National Conference for Undergraduate Research.

It is going to be a very busy week! In the meantime, I need to finish all my projects and papers that are due before I leave. I'll be in Maryland on the last day of classes so I need to be finished with all of my semester work before I leave for Seattle. As my newest brother-in-law is fond of singing, it's the final countdown!

IV Thearpy

2008-03-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

One of my clinical goals has to been to be able to start IVs. This is one of those things that you just can't practice on anything except real people so it is something that I haven't had as much experience in. I have only gotten one in so far and have missed two other times.

Thursday night (well really Friday morning) around 4:00 am, one of our patient accidentally pulled out their IV and needed a new one. I tried twice and missed so my nurse put it in. I was feeling rather discouraged at this. I really wanted to get that in! I had been working some pretty long hours at the hospital last week (and going to school in between) and I think that exacerbated my emotions a little.

My nurse was so nice- she saw that I was a little upset so we went into the breakroom and she let me practice putting an IV in her! I got it on my second try and it made me feel a whole lot better. I took a picture of her with her IV in on my cell phone but I haven't been able to figure out how to transfer pictures from my phone to the computer (maybe I am missing a cord) so you get this cartoon instead.

Foot in Mouth...

2008-02-24T22:59:00.000-08:00

I seem to have trouble finishing my sentences today which has led to some misunderstandings.

First, I went with my sister Emily to stuff wedding announcements tonight. We stopped by her future sister-in-law's house for her birthday party. The mother of house introduced herself to me and I was trying to say, "I'm Emily's sister, Kristen" but I got as far as "I'm Emily.." and she shrieked and thought that I was Emily and engaged to Richard. The real Emily was quite indignant at my attempt to impersonate her.

Then our home teachers were over tonight. They asked what was going on in my life. I was trying to say, "I'm working the night shift at the hospital and defending my honors thesis tomorrow." However before I could finish, one of them asked me a question. I stopped in the middle of my sentence to answer, so it ended "...and defending my honor."

EuroEnglish

2008-02-18T23:04:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across this the other day and couldn't help sharing it. I first heard it when I was on my mission in Germany and it reminds me the beautiful language that German really is.

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5 year phase-in plan that would be known as "EuroEnglish": --In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c".. Sertainly, this will make the sivil sevants jump with joy.

The hard "c" will be dropped in favor of the "k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have one less letter.There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with the "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter.In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent "e"'s in the language is disgraceful, and they should go away.By the 4th yar, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaning "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubls or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech ozer.ZE DREM VIL FINALI KUM TRU!!

I just love Germany!

Burning the Midnight Oil

2008-02-16T13:36:00.000-08:00

I'm doing my capstone internship on a medical-oncology floor. I worked days at first but it conflicted too much with my school schedule so I switched to working nights (7 pm- 7 am). I really enjoy working this shift- I think I hit my peak around 3 am. Last shift, I started an IV around this time and it went in perfectly. Even if it is throwing off my circadian rhythm a little, it is a great experience!

Aubrey's Wedding and More Fun on I-15

2008-02-09T15:22:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the wedding of one of my very favorite people. Aubrey and I were mission companions and always had a lot of fun. One of our favorite things to do was to dress up and take silly pictures.

Well, yesterday she married Nate- what a lucky guy! You couldn't have asked for better weather and she looked so pretty in her winter cloak.

That night, I played the harp at her wedding reception. This was the first time taking the harp in my new Subaru and using my new harp dolly.

Everything went swimmingly until the car ride home. For those of you who don't know, I got Sheila about 6 weeks ago and she has spent 4 of those weeks in the shop. Yes, I think I bought a lemon...bummer. But I had just gotten the car back a week ago and everything seemed fine. Aubrey's reception was about an hour and a half from my house. The first hour of the drive was fine but then the check oil light suddenly started blinking and the engine started making a funny ratttling noise. I pulled over and the car died and wouldn't start again. So there I was, broken down on I-15, late at night in my party dress and heels, with a harp in the backseat.

Emily and Richard to the rescue! I called my little sister who was conveinently at her fiance's house just a few miles away. She came and collected me and Celeste, while a tow truck took Sheila back to the mechanic. Let's hope that this stay is much shorter than the last one!

My New Blog!

2008-02-06T18:06:00.000-08:00

Well my sister Jenny helped me decide on this name. When we lived together, she would always say "Helloooooo nurse!" when she saw me.