Fourth of July

One of the nice things about working at a bank is that we get all the holidays off. And I really needed this three day weekend. We really didn't do anything special for the 4th. I enjoyed sleeping in a little bit and then Carl and I went out to breakfast at this yummy restaurant called First Watch. We both got 3 sourdough frenchtoast with some wheat germ sprinkled on them and powdered sugar and covered in kiwis, strawberries, and bananas. They were really yummy! And I got hot chocolate with lots of whipped cream on top and a fudge on top...I'm starting to get hungry again just thinking about it.

After that, we headed over to Colleen and Arlyn's house. Travis just bought a new game, so Carl and Travis played that most of the day while I tried to be crafty and make some hair bows for Bonnie's (my sister-in-law) baby that should be here any time. I think they turned out okay, although I used the regular sized clips instead of baby sized clips. Maybe I'll have to make her some new one's. (And Amber is the one that has any idea what I'm talking about...)

After making clips and bugging Carl and Travis, we had a very yummy dutch oven dinner. It surprised me; not a whole lot of people here know what a dutch oven is. After having to explain it everyone, I finally just told people we were having a BBQ.

Once it got dark, we went outside and started doing fireworks. Travis was our Fireworks Guy and put on quite a show. There was at least 3 houses nearby that spent a lot of money on illegal fireworks and so we had our own little show and 3 other big shows to watch. It was really cool...it had rained on and off all day and so there was a cool mist around and then smoke from the fireworks and steam coming from the grass where the fireworks got to close. It was a very good Fourth of July.

Carl Waiting for the Show to Start

Sparklers!!

Carl HAS to take a picture.

Travis put on a good show for us

Looking at the fireworks behind us. Speaking of those fireworks, Carl got a really awesome picture of them. Maybe if he's nice, he'll post it so you can see it.

Smokin' Stratus

Well, Tiona has been complaining about her car making ugly noises (she described them as gurgling noises). Well, of course, it took a while before I finally heard the noises! When I heard them, I thought, "I have no idea what's going on." After thinking about it for a while and trying to make the elusive noise be heard again, I finally decided it was coming from the area of the belt. Tiona also told me that one time while making the noise her AC wasn't blowing out cold air anymore. So, I decided that maybe the AC was going out, but I still wasn't sure. We ended up driving her Stratus to my parents the other day so I could have my dad take another look at it (but we forgot), and on the way home we noticed that smoke was billowing out from under the hood. I decided that we shouldn't drive it anymore... I took one of my dad's tricks to try to decide what was going on. My dad taught me that if you take a broom handle or a plunger handle and place one end on a part in the engine, you can put your ear to the other end and use it like a stethoscope. Well, the AC was REALLY noisy, so my hunch that the AC was dying was getting stronger.

Yesterday I had an epiphany while hitting the snooze button, which consisted of removing the belt and seeing if the noise stopped. After removing the belt the car was miraculously cured, but it was only temporary since without a belt there is no alternator... I spun the alternator pulley by hand and it was nice and smooth, then I spun the AC and it was wobbly and grinding. Spending money to get the Stratus fixed is on the bottom of our priority list (especially since we have to buy tires for it this month), so I bought a shorter belt and skipped the AC. Now the car drives great, but now it's hot and humid... Ah-well, I guess that it is my job to drive the Stratus now and let Tiona have the car with working AC...

My Week in Utah

Well, I guess it's time to finally post about Utah. I was able to go to Utah and visit my family. Carl didn't come because when we planned the trip and bought tickets, he was going to be busy doing research. However, that fell through and so he spent a week bored at home, driving his parents up the wall.

I had a blast in Utah. It was so much fun seeing my family. I was able to get there in time to go to Savana's 1st birthday party and then a play "Saturday's Warriors" that night. The next day, (Father's Day) I went to church with my family and then had a barbeque with my entire family and went out to Tooele to visit with the grandparents. The rest of the week was filled with things like going to Amber's pool, playing on the slipand slide, washing cars, admiring Savana, going shopping at Park City, going to Salem Pond, going fishing, seeing movies, seeing my best friend Krysta, and just spending time with my family. Thanks family for a wonderful week!

Research, New Phone, Empty House

Well, this week Tiona has been in Utah and I think she has been having a great time. However, I was not able to go because of my research that I am doing this summer. I am doing research under a radiologist. I have enjoyed it so far, but the Dr. is pretty crazy. I get a kick out of him every time I work with him. He is a brilliant man, but he has so many ideas going through his head at once. Since his mind is going everywhere, you have to keep reminding him to finish telling you what you came in for. However, I am really excited to be working with him, especially because he thinks that I will be able to get a my name on a couple of papers this summer. Right now I have been working on a project that deals with MRIs and CT scans, so it has been fun.

However, these past two days I didn't have any work to do. Without having Tiona around, it has been pretty boring. I decided to come visit my parents, and they are probably getting sick of me!!! However, while I was at my parents house, I decided to upgrade my phone. I needed to buy a PDA for school (for the drug data bases) and so I decided to get a PDA phone. I was really interested in the Blackberry Pearl, but the programs I needed don't work on Blackberry. I was limited to a Pocket PC or Palm, so I decided to go with the Palm Centro. It's a neat little phone, and it was the cheapest one that would work for what I needed!!!

I Need a Vacation

Carl made the mistake of telling me last night that he has killed two more of those big nasty bugs in our house. Remember the one with the lots of legs and the huge stinger thingy and the antenna?!? (For a refresher on the big nasty bug, see the post about it) He said that he didn't want to tell me because I got so worked up about the first one. He also mentioned that he found both of them in the shower. He also told me this as I was standing in the shower, ready to shower after our run. I grew very paranoid at this point. Husbands...

Work has been a little crazy this week. One of the tellers went to the hospital last week with chest pains and found out that she need a coronary bypass and won't be back to work for about 6-8 weeks. The other teller is on vacation this week. Which leaves one teller. Me. Who happens to be part time. Who the bank can't open without or close without this week. Lucky me! Of course, they got permission for me to work 40+ hours this week. And of course they never talked to me about it. I was at work for 10 hours today and will do 9 1/2 tomorrow. I need a vacation!

Luckily, I'm going to Utah on Saturday! For an entire week. I am very excited.

Second year here I come!

My first year of med school is now officially over. It feels good to be half way done with book work, but from what I hear second year makes first year look easy... I was kind-of sad today because our grades were posted today from Gross Anatomy and Brain and Behavior. I was pleased with my Brian and Behavior grade, but my Gross grade made me sad. For you people who aren't familiar with my school's grading, there are 5 grades--fail, remediate (it's a fail but you have a chance to redeem yourself), pass, high-pass, and honors. Many schools don't have the high-pass, so it is just pass or honors. Well, in most of my classes I sit in the high-pass range. I don't study nearly as much as my classmates because I decided that a happy wife is better than good grades (don't worry, I still study hard!).

Well, back to my story... When I looked at my grades today I saw that I am got a high pass in Gross Anatomy, which is great! However, the sad thing is that if I would have gotten ONE more question right on my last practical (that's where we have to name structures marked on our cadavers) I would have honored the class. ONE question. To make things worse, I only missed two questions on that practical, and on both questions I was unsure which muscle it was or if it was artery or nerve (when they are small, it's tough). Well, both times I was debating between the right and the wrong answer, and both times I chose the wrong answer. To make matters worse, I actually wrote the right answer down on one of them and then changed it! I know that many people say they never change answers, and I usually don't. But in my experience, I have had many tests where if I DIDN'T change my answer I wouldn't have gotten that A... I guess this time I was wrong! Ah-well, at least I passed, and you know what they say, P = MD...

Speaking of P = MD, do you know what they call the person ranked last in the graduating class at med school? . . . . . . . . . . . . Doctor!

New Camera

So, most of you know that Carl is way into camera's and has this huge brick of a camera. It's actually a fairly nice camera that we both enjoy, although Carl enjoys it more than I do. The only problem is, it's not very portable. It has a big bag and lenses and a tripod and lots of more stuff that Carl could tell you about.

Well, I'm going to Utah in about a week and a half (Yippee!!) and really didn't want to take that camera with me but still really wanted a camera. I thought about it and finally approached Carl with the idea of buying a little point and shoot camera. It would be very nice to have a little one for trips to like Disney World or for when I just go someplace of for visiting with friends. He agreed and we started looking.

After much research and looking at Best Buy, Target, 2 Wal-marts, Circuit City, and attempting Staples, this is the camera we got:

It's 8.1 megapixels and has a 5x optical zoom. It also has cool features like face detection, image stabilization, and a bunch of other cool features. I'm very excited for it, although this means that you will now have to look at more pictures. Here's some pictures we took while playing with our new camera!

Aren't we beautiful? This was playing with a setting that automatically takes a picture when it detects a smile....How do you think it did?