Suturing!

John was on his surgery rotation and he had just had some classes on how to suture, so he had me buy some chicken that he could practice suturing on. He put on his gloves and got all his instruments and then he decided there wasn't enough light in the kitchen, so he went and found a headlight my dad got us and he was all set to go.

It was great to hear him explaining to me how to hold the needle and how to stitch and where to use the forceps, and I wanted to videotape him for future generations (haha) but when I turned the video camera on he stopped. Oh well. 

Then I got a turn to try out all the new skills John taught me. John is pretty much a suturing pro, so how could his student not be exceptional too?

Halloween!!

It took me a long time this year to figure out what we should be for Halloween, but with a little brainstorming with our friends Emily and TC on the way back from camping, we figured it out. What would be better than to be Simba and Nala from The Lion King, when everyone knows that The Lion King is John's favorite Disney movie--and Nala is his favorite too. So at first I wanted to make masks like they have in The Lion King on Broadway, but I first thought of doing them with paper plates and I knew that idea wouldn't work. So then I was trying to think of something else, but I figured it would be pretty much impossible so I decided to give up on the mask idea. To make our costumes we went to Ross (because there is no DI in Texas, which stinks when you need cheap clothes for Halloween costumes) and John had the genius idea of using bath mats and a blanket--because Lions are furry. We also got a sheet from Target and I pieced together some costumes. The next weekend John was studying like crazy because he had tests coming up and I wasn't working so I figured I would rethink my mask idea. I looked up how to make paper mache on the internet, bought some balloons and a little less than a week later (paper mache takes a long time to dry) John and I had made ourselves some pretty cool masks. I thought it would be impossible, but it worked! : ) So then we went to a Halloween party that Mitch and Kelsie threw and it was great! Everyone had such cool and creative costumes. 

John and I in our costumes--and you can see Robin Hood (the fox) in the background

Me limbo-ing, with  a knocked-up pregnant lady and Miss Piggy (minus her nose and wig) holding the Limbo pole and  Kermit and Pinky (from Pinky and the Brain) in the background

 We even got to wear our costumes again when we actually went to a Baylor activity!! It was a talent show and it was pretty fun. There were a few bands and singers that were really talented! And there was a little girl there who kept staring and me and John—her parents told us that The Lion King is her favorite movie and Nala is her absolute favorite! I thought that was really cute—and she was so excited! : )

Then we carved pumpkins with Brian and Amanda, Hannah and Leah from our ward. 

 Hannah and Leah especially had tons of fun with John. 

We had a great Halloween!

The alligator park

We finally got together with a bunch of people and went camping a few weeks ago! It was so fun to go camping and hang out so many of our friends. And another thing that was super fun about it was that we camped at what a lot of people call the “alligator park.” The campsite wasn’t by the alligators, but we went to see them the next day. Also, we saw some other cool animals.

We went up Friday afternoon and when we were setting up tents an armadillo just wandered into our camp. I know I learned that there were animals called armadillos, but who really knew they actually existed? Haha. This one started heading back into the trees when we went up to it, but then John got behind it and scared it back toward us. It wasn’t very smart or fast, but I guess that is why it is like a living tank with all its armor. Anyway, it kept wandering in and out of our camp throughout the afternoon. And then later that night after we had eaten and put all the food away we were just sitting around and talking. I heard a weird noise and I looked up to see a raccoon getting into some cooking supplies. I guess we hadn’t been thorough enough about putting away our food, because the raccoon found the P, B & J’s that were in Ziploc bags in someone’s lunch for the next day. We jumped up and the raccoon took off with the Ziploc bag in its mouth up a tree, then sat there and ate through the bag to the sandwich. It then kept coming back through the night to see if we had left any food out. I thought that was pretty cool. Then the next morning there were deer in the campsite across from us. They didn’t seem too bothered by all the noise coming from the campsites all around them, and I was actually to walk pretty close to them, so they must have been used to all the people. Despite all these sweet animal sightings, we hadn’t even see any alligators yet.

 We drove over to where all the alligators were and the first alligator we saw when we started walking was pretty big, but it was kind far away and just laying there.

 The next one we saw was smaller, but for some reason it kept opening and closing its mouth. It would have its mouth closed for a few minutes, then open it up for a few minutes, then close it again. I don’t know what it was doing, but I was super excited that it was moving at all.

 Then we saw alligator shaped mudholes. You could tell that was where the alligators would normally lay in the mud.

  There was a little pathway/platform out into a swamp where you could walk out and see the alligators right under you. It was pretty cool to see them up close. They didn’t really move though, so one of our friends checked to make sure there weren’t any park rangers around before pouring some water from their water bottle over one of the alligators head. She had to pour quite a bit before it noticed, but it finally moved…a little.

  Anyway, the path to see the alligators was in a big loop and it was really hot, so we were trying to decide if we should go back the way we came—it was a little bit shorter—or just finish up the loop. Finally we decided to finish the loop, and we were super excited we did. We were walking along and we came to a little family stopped on the side of the path. And there just a little way off the trail was an alligator with a turtle in its mouth!! The whole day we were hoping to see an alligator eating something and we had thought we had lost our chance, but there we were. The craziest thing about it was that the alligator would chomp on the turtle for like 2 minutes, then stop and stay perfectly still for 2 minutes, then repeat. We came to the conclusion the alligators are really lazy, or they just get worn out really easily.

  Anyway, one of the times it was trying to chomp on the turtle the turtle slipped out of its mouth and into the mud. And the alligator dove its head into the mud and came out with the turtle—and a mouthful of mud! But it didn’t really seem to care, it just sat there for 2 minutes before it started chomping again. 

Anyway, we didn’t stay to see it finish eating the turtle because it could have taken all day, but it was pretty cool. We didn’t see any alligators jump completely out of the water so that it could catch a bird flying by in its mouth, like we were hoping, but overall it was a pretty awesome camping trip.

I belong to the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

            I am so grateful that I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and that I know that my Heavenly Father and my Savior Jesus Christ love me and know me and answer my prayers. I am so grateful to have prophets and apostles who truly receive revelation from our Heavenly Father on what we can do in our lives to become stronger and be happier. I know that we also can receive revelation specifically for ourselves and our families. I don’t know how I would be able to survive without the peace and strength I receive from the Spirit every day.

I missed General Conference weekend because I had to work, so I have been able to watch the conference talks more slowly and focus my energy on each one and I have learned so much and felt the spirit so strongly with each of them. One of the talks that I really liked was one by Elder Carl B. Cook. It is called “It Is Better to Look Up.” https://lds.org/general-conference/2011/10/it-is-better-to-look-up?cid=email-shared&lang=engThis talk encompasses so much of the most important things of the gospel for me. Elder Cook talks about how if we look to our Heavenly Father for help we will never be overwhelmed, because he will strengthen us and help us get through everything we are doing.

I think everyone needs to realize this in their lives. No matter what you do in life, you will always have times when things seem hard, or you don’t know how to do something, or you don’t know what is right, but as you look up to God He will help you know exactly what you need to know. I know that when you pray to Him and believe in Him, He will answer you. I am so grateful for this. I want everyone to know how much happiness the gospel can bring into each person’s life. The knowledge that God lives and He loves you can be your lifeline through everything you go through. I cannot imagine how my life, or anyone’s, would be if they did not know this truth. I want everyone to know that God loves them, no matter what mistakes they have made or things they have done wrong. No matter where you are in life, Heavenly Father can help you if you will believe in Him and ask for His help. Jesus Christ suffered all things for everyone. He has felt what you are feeling. You are never alone. I am so grateful to know this and have felt it in my life. 

It's been a while...

 So it seems like everyone is getting on my case for not posting in like...forever. Haha. And I even sat down to post yesterday and I had written a ton and then I barely moved my computer and the cord fell out and my computer died, so it all got erased. So maybe its a sign that I shouldn't post, but since I am sitting here in my house all by myself except John who is studying about Pseudomonas and beta-lactams and I just finished my book, I figured I would post something. 

     I finally got a group of pictures to blog about, so here they are. 

     This first group is pictures of Halloween. We got to go home to Mesa for Halloween because John's brother David got back from his mission and I was super excited to dress up. I had thought about dressing up as Wilma and Fred Flintstone, but I wasn't sure. I talked to Heidi (my littlest sister) about what she was going to be and she said she was going to be Pebbles Flintstone. So then we decided we should all be people from the Flinstones. Holly decided she would rather be Betty than Dino, so we let her. And David (my brother) wanted to be a skeleton like last year...and I guess that kind of fits in, because the Flintstones are all about bones (Pebbles wears one as a fashion accessory). Anyway, it was super fun to make the costumes too. We got sheets from Walmart and made them into AMAZING costumes, thanks especially to Holly's ability to sew better than me...which isn't saying much. Anyway, it was super fun. We dressed up to go to my Mom's ward party, and then John and I wore ours to open the door for trick-or-treaters at his house. They thought we were cool. (They were like 8.) : ) So that was pretty exciting.

 

The next exciting thing that we did (that we have pictures of) was take our little flat brother around Houston. Flat David came to us in the mailbox, so we showed him around Baylor and Methodist. This first picture is of a Nobel Prize given to a doctor at Baylor that is in the Debakey Museum there. We had to get a picture of where I work, since we got some of where John is all day. And this is a picture of the Texas Medical Center. It really is a lot bigger than it looks. ; )

     These next pictures are another example of me having fun dressing up. We went to the Houston Rodeo, which is actually pretty huge, so we had to show our Texas sides. I wanted to have big Texas hair like all the women are supposed to have here. The only problem is that we live in the most unTexas-like part of Texas. There aren't any women with big Texas hair or people walking around in cowboy boots. It is a little depressing. So I decided I would be that big Texas hair lady. Anyway, when we were actually at the rodeo we first went to the Livestock show. We saw tons of cows there, and John was pretty impressed by them. These cows weren't the normal cows you see on the side of the road when you are driving down from Idaho, these were big, buff cows. AND their hair was nicely combed. John decided that he was going to skip med school and become a farmer (obviously this didn't last long, otherwise he wouldn't care about ceftriaxone right now). But it was pretty cool. We even got to be best friends with one of the cows. Another shining moment at the rodeo was the fried Snickers. We figured if we were in Texas at the rodeo we should probably eat some of the most fattening and fried things out there, just to get a feel for it. And the fried Snickers was pretty amazing. We actually had to buy two, because we forgot to take a picture with the first one before we ate it. The rodeo itself was pretty cool too. John's favorite part was the cart racing, my favorite parts were the calf scramble and the mutton bustin'. The cart racing is pretty self-explanatory (see picture). The calf scramble is where a big group of young teens go out onto the floor and they let a bunch of calves out and the teens run around and try to catch the calves then drag them to the middle of the field. The funniest parts were when a few of the kids ran and dove at the cattle to catch them and then after they caught them they tried to drag them by their tails, and they still wouldn't budge. The mutton bustin' is when little 5 or 6 year old little kids try to hold on to sheep while they fun across the field. Most of them fall off within 3 seconds, but the little kids are so cute. Some get a little trampled and cry, but others turn around and start waiving to the crowd like they are little Miss Americas. After the rodeo was the Rascal Flatts concert. It was awesome. We didn't know all the songs, but they were really energetic, so we all got into it. Also, they played some Journey in the middle and then some Boston and Kansas at the end and John and I went crazy! haha. You can tell we were born in the wrong decade. : ) We went with a big group of our friends, from our ward and John's med school class. It was great!

Girl Time!

For the past few weeks Kelsie, Mariah and I have been getting together at least once a week to have lunch and watch chick flicks (so far we have watched Sydney White, Penelope, License to Wed and Eclipse!) Last week we decided to take a break from movies and do fondue! We melted chocolate and dipped strawberries, pretzels and we even made oreo truffles (which we found are a little bit addicting) to dip in it! It was super fun, even though a little bit messy. We even were nice enough to take some home to our husbands. : ) And Kelsie and Mariah--the ultimate homemakers--decided to take some pictures. We didn't take any pictures of the oreo truffles because although they are delicious, we couldn't figure out how to make them look anything but gross. ; ) It was a super fun day....but we missed our chick flick, so now it seems that we have to get together twice a week--once for homemaking and once for our movies!

My Quilt

When I got to Houston I was looking for jobs and trying to get interviews, but I also realized that I was going to have a lot of time on my hands while John was at school. One of my new friends here, Mariah, talked about how she loves to quilt and joked that she would teach me how if I wanted to. She was probably surprised when the next day I was like--Ya, I do want to learn. Teach me! And I think that day we went and bought fabric. And it actually went pretty quick with Mariah showing me what to do...and letting me use her sewing machine. : ) I was working on it mostly everyday until I got to the binding at the very end, and then it took me like two weeks...to finish one side. ; ) I guess I figured it was done enough, and I would get to it eventually. But now it is done, and I think it looks pretty cute! John confessed that when he first saw the colors for the middle of the quilt, he wasn't sure how much he liked it (too pastel! But of course he didn't tell me...) But now that it has the borders and it is all done he says he likes it. I like it too! Although I might wait a little bit to start another one. John also might not have been too excited by my quilt, because it is a BABY quilt...and he doesn't want me to get any ideas. haha. Just kidding. ; )