Last Fall Semester...

Well, I started school last Monday and it is not going to be an easy ride! ISU shares the program with Boise State University, so all our classes are in the basement of the library where they have a system set up where Boise can view and participate in our lectures and we can view and participate in theirs. It gets kind of annoying because anytime you want to say something, you have to speak into a microphone so that Boise can hear you. Anyway, my classes this semester are:

Clinical Chemistry


Clinical Hematology


Clinical Immunology/Transfusion Medicine


Clinical Microbiology
Molecular Biology
Molecular Lab Methods
Intro to Clinical Lab. Science

So, you can start praying for me any time! ;-) Just kidding. It's nice to be in a program because we only have 3 teachers, and they all know the homework load. This way they know when they are overwhelming us! The funniest part about this is, my Molecular Biology teacher (who was my Genetics teacher 1 1/2 years ago), is actually going through the program with us because he wants to have a BS in CLS (even though he already has a BS/MS/PhD in Microbiology already). It's funny cause when he's lecturing and asks a question, he says, "It's okay, you can talk to me. I'm your fellow student." We have a lot of laughs. I know a few people in my program already, so that's nice. Shawna (Crouch) Dance is actually in my program (for those of you from Ashton) and we've become fast friends. We actually had Immunology Lab together this summer. Her dad went through this same program.

Kenny is loving his program! He is actually on a field trip to EBR-I today, which is out by INL. It was a nuclear power plant back in the 50's, but was shut down due to nuclear meltdowns. No one was hurt/killed that I remember. I took a tour of it last summer and it was very interesting! I recommend it. It's free.

A lot less work and a little more fun!

So, to try to have a little fun this summer, a couple of friends (that I worked with at Fish & Game two summers ago) and I went around to some of the boating/fishing Sportsmans Access sites that we used to work at. We wanted to be able to spend some time together, and I thought that it would be fun to do this. So we took our favorite route and on we went to reminisce:

This is Dana (holding her daughter Lucy who, at the time we worked together, was swimming around in Dana's stomach) and Jerahlyn. They are posing in front of Daniel's reservoir by Malad. The outhouse door had been pulled off, one which we made, painted, and hung when we worked there. We even made a makeshift lock on it that was a door handle and a lock. We were pretty proud of our wittiness and were sad to see the door was gone.

By the time we got into Malad, we were hungry, so we decided to stop and eat at the Dude Ranch. Whenever we used to do the Oneida County route (Malad), the Dude Ranch was never open--especially when we were craving mashed potatoes. That's a small town for ya--open and close as they please (like the Downey Library)! So we thought we would see if they were open this time and they were! We were so excited that we had to take a picture with the "Open" sign in the window. And on the window to the left, they advertise that they have "Ho-made Pie". :)


Here we are eating in the Dude ranch (Dana, me, Jerahlyn, and Lucy). We all had to have our mashed potatoes. :) YUM!


After eating we decided to go to Deep Creek Reservoir and instead of picking up trash, measuring the ramp, cleaning poopy restrooms, weed eating, or painting handi-cap parking signs, we decided to sit on the dock and soak our feet (left to right: Dana, Lucy, me, and Jerahlyn's one foot--she sprained her other ankle, so it was wrapped). I would have liked to jump in and swim, but the water was kind of yucky and had some floaties.


Of course, we had to see what kind of condition the restroom was in, so Jerahlyn volunteered. She reported that there was no toilet paper, the lock was broken, and it was kind of dirty. On the cement pad that she is walking on, you can see some handi-cap parking stripes. We painted those along with the actual handi-cap sign, but you can't see it. It was fading and chipping away--that's what happens when you don't buy Sherwin Williams paint I guess! :) We had a fun rest of the trip and enjoyed some scenery while reminiscing of funny stories and experiences. I am so happy that I had the opportunity to work there and make these two friends because we do have a lot of fun together and we can be ourselves. The type of work we did could have made that job really crappy, however we three made it fun and that's what counts. You could have the best job in the world, but if you don't have good company it could make it the worst job in the world! We had a lot of fun together and still do!

NAME TAG

Since I had some extra time...
1.YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)
Sassy Ram
2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)
Bubble Gum Samoa
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
J-Gar
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)
Green Retriever
5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
Lynn Rexburg
6. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)
Garja
7. SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
The Red Water
8. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Russell Harvey
9. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)
Lucky Twix
10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names )
KayAnn Stewart Kent
11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)
Thompson Tallahassee
12. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower)
Fall Lilac
13. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)
Strawberry Scrubsie
14. HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree
Omlet Oak
15. YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour")
The Piano Rain Tour

I now tag Morgan, Julie, and Shelley Patterson

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Here is the link to the trailer to the new Harry Potter movie coming out in November!!!

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1809791044/video/9048692#9048692

Memories

Here are the directions:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Come on and play, it should be fun!

Our Independence Day Weekend

Last Thursday after Kenny and I got off work we headed up to Williams Lake above Salmon to spend the weekend with our friends. One of our friend's parents own a cabin on the lake where we spent a weekend of fun and relaxation. It was so nice to be able to not worry about anything but having fun! :) We swam, we kayaked, we boated, we wakeboarded, we watched movies, we ate good food, and we relaxed--ahhhh! It was so much fun!

The Cabin

The view from the cabin porch.

The dogs loved playing fetch in the water--they couldn't get enough of it!

Maggie was fetching a ball when a group of geese caught her attention so she decided to swim after them. We would call her and she would start coming back, but her instincts kept telling her to keep going after the geese. It was pretty funny for a while, but then I got worried that she was going to get tired and not make it back...but she did.

Kenny and Grant (my friend, Shelley's, husband whose parents own the cabin) practicing their kayak rolling skills.

Kenny trying to get into the kayak.

The dogs had fun in the kayaks with the guys.

Shelley and I

Kenny and I kayaking around the lake

This is the lodge that Dad (Bob) had some training/meetings many years ago where we went with him. Julie, Ryan, and Adrea--do you remember that trip and jumping off this dock?



Shelley made a delicious trifle while we were there.

The guys in their sexy wetsuits. Kenny had dropped one of his many knives in the lake by the dock, so the guys thought they would try to retrieve it. Well, it was about 14 feet down, so they thought they could take a couple of hoses to breath through as they went down--it did not work so well. So the next morning they just got a large magnet, tied it to a string and retrieved it that way. I told Kenny beforehand that he could just have mine (I have the exact same knife), but with these guys you tell them they can't do it and they find a way to do it. :-/

Shelley and I just relaxing in this groovin' 60's style cabin. Is everyone diggin' the yellow and green carpet and orange chairs, along with the wallpaper in the dining room? The ceiling was also that popcorn style texture with glitter in it.

Family photo. Joey and Maggie are looking down at a tennis ball that they are hoping we will throw. That was the only way we could get them to hold still for a picture.

Our friends, Shelley, Grant, and Hunter. Grant's parents own the cabin that we stayed at. Shelley and I have been best friends since the 5th grade. We still have such a great time together!

The whole group of us (minus me--taking the picture). From left to right: Shelley, Grant, Kenny (you can only see his head behind Grant), Nicole, Brad and Aubrey (on the couch bed), and Cade. Cade is one of Kenny's best friends and he and Nicole just recently got married. Aubrey is Nicole's sister and Brad is her husband. It was a fun group altogether. Cade, Nicole, Brad and Aubrey had to leave Saturday morning to go to a baptism, so we didn't get too many pictures with them.

This is Nicole and Aubrey (a better picture than above). Don't they look like Barbies? :)

From left to right: Shelley, Grant, Hunter, Kenny, and Brad.

Here is a video of the dogs fetching a tennis ball and the guys were playing keep-away in the kayaks.

Busy Weekend!

This weekend was a very busy, but very productive one. I had to do kennels this weekend at the Animal Hospital (take care of the boarding animals) so we didn't go to Utah. Kenny worked hard in the yard all day Friday while I spent about 8 hours on my Pathophysiology final (it was a take-home test, but I think I put about 25 hours into it, but I am done--whew!). We had dinner with friends, then decided to take the dogs up to Scout Mountain to let them swim a little.

READY...

SET....

GO!!!!!!!!!!!

Maggie was coming at me so fast, so I just snapped the picture before she could soak me.

Joey has to shake himself right next to us every time.... >:-(



I will tell Joey to stay as I throw his toy into the water and he has to wait for my signal to go fetch it. He does pretty good most of the time.

Joey loves to go for rides and since we took the shell off the truck we have been trying to see how he and Maggie can ride in the back without being in their kennels. Well, Joey does all right, but Maggie didn't do so well. Kenny was doing a good job at keeping an eye on them in the rearview mirror, but we got to talking on our way down the mountain that we weren't paying close attention. Well, we realized that we lost Maggie at some point (she jumped out of the back somehow, or maybe Joes pushed her.....), so we turned around to go find her, praying that she was okay. Well, she was standing on the side of the road a mile or two back from where we noticed she was missing. She didn't break anything (thanks goodness), but she did do a nose dive and roll. We noticed when we got home that she had a pretty good bump on her nose and a little road rash on her head, and her eye was really red. Luckily the vet I work for was on call and she was still at the hospital when I called her so she said to bring Maggie in. She has some slight scleric hemmhoraging in her left eye, but other than that she is fine. I just have to put a steroid gel in her eye 3x a day.

You can see her eye is a little red and watery in the above picture and in the below picture a few inches above her left eye you can see the road rash a litte and the scrape and bump on her nose. I love the benefits of working for a Vet!

Well, I kind of got a wild hair and decided to rearrange our kitchen. I know, it's not very easy to just rearrange you kitchen, but we did it! It all started with me asking Kenny, "What do you think about . . . ?" That's usually how it starts. Well, we did a lot of rearranging and cleaning and it looks so good! See for yourself...

To the left is our portable dishwasher that just looks really out of place, but we had no place else to put it. Well I thought that if we could maybe take out the last section of our bottom cabinets (right side) it could fit there (don't worry, they are just cheap metal cabinets, no biggie). So Kenny took the Skil saw, and Jigsaw, and screwdrivers, etc. to it and we got it out.

Voila! Now the dishwasher is on the right and the cabinets that used to be covered by it are now exposed so we can properly use them. So, even though we took out a section, we opened up two sections! I am a thinker!!! :)

Below: we also switched our white cabinet with our kitchen table, for some more change. I love it!

I also worked eleven hours at the animal hospital Saturday painting the surgery room, plus Kenny put in sod in our backyard patch of lawn, plus we fed the missionaries. Like I said, busy, but productive!