Moving to the Country

This is my ode to peaches. Oh how I love them! They are delicious and fantastic and I love the people who donate them to me. Thank you: mom and dad, McQuivey family, Joni, Roberts family, South Ogden Pharmacy, Jeff, and any future contributors. Peaches are one of the big highlights of fall for me. I delight in their colors of red orange and yellow, the juiciness, and how wonderful they are to eat plain or bake in crisps and cobblers. And as I shout out to my cousins, I wish I could share your Peaches music video here, but alas I do not have it. Jessie, help me!

The Power of One

We went to a birthday party for Great Grandma Speth this afternoon. This being her 97th birthday equates into it also being a uber-extended family reunion. Looking around at her remaining children, her grandchildren, great grandchildren (JD's category) and great great grandchildren, it is amazing to think of the legacy that has been created by an individual making right choices and being there for her family. She knows everyone, including myself who has only been in the family for a year. She supports everyone, at the young age of 95 she made the trip from College Ward to Bountiful to be at our sealing. She is feisty and fun and it is amazing that she is still able to live on her own and even help other single sisters around her. She calls each of us a special birthday present, but she is a gift and inspiration to each of us. As I looked at the 100 plus people in attendance, I mentioned to JD that without her, no one would be there today, it is humbling and something to think about as we focus so much on the present and the stresses and trials we go through, in the long run, it is the big decisions that matter and that is the legacy worth building upon.

The Plight of the Unflexible

While one might question the validity of making the goal of touching one's toes. The said person would respond with the sadness of not being able to stretch even within a foot of their toes due to unflexible muscles. There are a great many benefits that come with flexibilty included are:

• increased blood and nutrients to tissues
• improved muscle coordination
• improved posture
• increased physical and mental relaxation
• releases muscle tension and soreness

So apparently this is something definately worth pursuing. Otherwise this person will be an uncoordinated, clumsy, bad blooded, stress case for the said individual's life; hence let such a goal be made, even encouraged.

Let us all celebrate the drive to be a little more flexible!

Music of the Night.....

We have our piano back! JD and I bought this a month before we got married, it was $100 on KSL.com and our only rule was that all the keys played. While that was true at the time of purchase, having the piano in a swamp cooler home next to an open fireplace changed the wood and made several keys in the middle C range stick. When we moved to Riverdale, JD's dad said he would keep the piano and refinish it for us. He did an amazing job. It looks completely different, all the keys play again, no more marker all over the seat or sharpie on the wood above the keys. It has been greatly missed and I will be teaching lessons to our upstairs neighbor.

Ode to Autumn

I LOVE FALL! It is one of my favorite times of the year. I love crisp mornings where a blanket is needed. I love the colors of the leaves. I love the rain. I love jackets. I love the return of holidays. I love the food: corn, peaches, pumpkin pie, apples, Thanksgiving dinner...Aspen Loop and other car drives, decorating the house, the colors of autumn: red, orange, yellow, green, brown. I love the above photograph that JD gave me for my birthday 2 years ago. I love my birthday and October in general. I love school. I LOVE FALL!

The Lincoln Highway

So the following is the much anticipated Lincoln head....yes I know you have all been waiting. If you ever want to see it in person, it is on Happy Jack Road in Wyoming; it was built in commemoration of the highest point on the transcontinental highway. I also have a picture of me with the plaque honoring one of my heros, Stephen Mather, one of the major developers of the National Parks in the United States. He is right up there with John Muir in my book. (if you don't know what I am talking about, I highly recommend the Ken Burn's documentary on the National Parks)

Colorado Crossroads

We are home from a great trip to Colorado. We are so grateful to Shawn, Kari, and family for letting us stay with them! It was so nice getting a break from school, work, needles, doctors visits and to have the opportunity to spend time together.

We spent a day in Denver playing at the zoo and aquarium. We had a lot of fun relaxing and playing. We got to see a polar bear go swimming right in front of us in a dive tank. We fed sting rays...weird but super cool. Better yet, I made it a whole day doing a lot of stuff, not without getting worn out, but still made it.

We spent another fantastic day in Denver after our creature adventures. We went to the temple and did some family work for Maheshwari, a friend of ours from India serving a mission in San Jose California. Shawn and Kari gave us tickets to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at a dinner theater in town. It was super fancy with an amazing menu and was a ton of fun.

We also spent a few days in Rocky Mountain National Park. We will have to come back again when I can hike more but we did make it up to Alberta Falls which was beautiful, we also hiked to Bear Lake. On our second day we drove through the whole park to Grand Lake, it was a super cute little town. The drive made me a little nervous (ask JD and he will tell you) but it was beautiful being up high in the Rockies, even with the jagged cliffs right outside my window, the temperature was perfect and we had a fun time hiking and sightseeing.

The drives were also a lot of fun as can be seen by my fashionable TED hose. We made several stops along the way. I will post the picture of the giant Lincoln head we found on our way home. This one is a pioneer marker in Lyman Wyoming.

Denver Day 1/2

Vacation started early. As a surprise, JD had reserved an IHC Suite at the Little America Hotel for the night of Lion King. IHC has a few suites they reserve for guests at the Little America and Grand America. If they aren't reserved, an employee can get the rooms for less than 1/2 price. The suite has a two door entrance, turn down service, robes, pillow chocolates, ice bucket full when we came back from the show etc. Fancy shmance.

We ate at the Garden right next to the window with a great view of the Temple. There were a bunch of little girls with their moms that were going to Lion King as well and they would keep running to the window when not eating so we had a play by play of weddings going on etc. We went and checked out the to scale model of the temple at the South Visitor Center, it was pretty cool. After walking/sitting around the temple grounds, we made our way to the show.

Lion King was amazing.....my mouth was dropped open for most of the show and only closed when I realized it was open. The colors, costumes, set, everything was amazing. We sat next to a dad who had brought his 6 year old daughter who from what I could tell had cerebral palsy and cystic fibrosis. She would get SO excited anytime Timon, Pumba, or the hyenas were on the stage, it was really cute.

Super fun evening, much fancier than the hike and Zeppes we were going to do after getting back from Fish Lake until I decided to check into a different kind of hotel room (our anniversary was July 8th but we were camping with my family, so we were going to do a date night when we got home, but hospital got in the way of that). Today we head for Denver, with lots of stops along the way to keep the blood flowing, I am hoping to see a sign for the odd things that you would never stop for without reason such as the World's Largest Ball of Twine, or Tumbleweed, or something.....fingers crossed.

Archery World Cup 2010

Porec Croatia, Antalya Turkey, Ogden Utah, Shanghai China, Edinburgh Great Britain......Ogden doesn't really fit, but I am certainly glad that the third stage of the Archery World Cup was held here this week. As celebration of JD taking his last test this morning-YAY-he cut out a bit of work this evening and we went on a date to see the recurve archery finals. Free admission, free hot dog, and drink....can't complain. We got there just in time to see India take silver in the women's team event and now JD is quite interested in getting an Indian Archery Team shirt as we ended up sitting next to the rest of team India cheering on the girls. USA took first in the mens team event, a big first as in the first time the archery world cup has been held in the USA so the team was way excited. We had a ton of fun and it was a great way to kick off two weeks of freedom from school.

Progress

So this week has been going much better! I am sleeping in a bed. I was permitted to go back to work-pharmacy only-for 12 hours this week. Next week I get to do 14 hours-3 1/2 will be doing x-rays (a little scary but we will see how that goes). I can pick things up off the floor, walk and breathe at the same time, can't complain. My blood is starting to level out....at least for this week.

Highlights include I got a vacuum! I am so very excited about my Dyson. There is no sarcasm involved here, you don't believe me, there is photographic evidence, opening it was like Christmas.

Above all: JD FINISHES SUMMER SEMESTER ON SATURDAY!!!

Princess and the Pea

I wasn't going to post, but I am just too excited not to.....I slept in my own bed last night!!!! It was a very very exciting thing. The last time I was able to sleep in a bed was July 13th, and that is just way too long to go living in a recliner. I still can't lay on my side at all but I don't care, I was in a bed! My bed! All night! I'm practically healed!

Pulmonary Embolism

So the evening after the car fun previously posted, my usual pleurisy came back. What wasn't so usual was that I had it a couple of weeks ago and it doesn't come back for at least 5 months, so I was a little concerned. By the time I was getting the tires changed out at Costco my breathing was worse and my back was hurting. Shortened story; slept a total of 2o minutes that night due to pain, couldn't breathe at 7:00, went to the clinic I work at to get a chest x-ray, traveled over to McKay Dee for a CT Chest with Contrast. Twenty minutes following the CT a radiologist came to the room saying they were keeping me right where I was and informed JD and I that I had a huge embolism in my lung with quite a bit of surrounding necrosis and that I wasn't going anywhere for a while. I was taken by wheel chair up to the CVTU where I got to stay for the next 5 days.

I had many IV's, needle sticks, shots, pills, and so on. My heart rate the first few days stayed right around 130, oxygen in the low to mid 80's, blood pressure all over the place and so on. If anything, I learned that it is a huge blessing to have a medical background and know what is going on, but it is also a bad thing at times where not wearing glasses so you can't read your monitors is a very good idea too. I came home with a mini pharmacy. I hurt off and on, breathing is improving, and I will hopefully get a release to work in a few weeks. Right now I just go and see the doctor twice a week and get my blood and breathing checked until my blood balances out and my breathing stops sounding like rice krispies.

JD is considering changing careers and taking the path of CNA. He has learned the value of lotion; how to clip nails, towel dry hair, blow dry hair, kind of straighten hair, put on TED hose; transport, turn on and off oxygen tanks, read stats and know if they are too high, too low; tuck in bed, help out of bed, what to say and what not to say when Nattie is on drugs and so on.....he has been amazing.

We both feel way blessed that things were caught before they turned fatal and that we were helped by so many family, friends, and staff that helped me to get well enough to go home and stay there. The next 6-9 months should be interesting and an adventure, but in answer to the question the hospitalist asked me before discharging, "Outside of the physical maladies you are feeling right now, how do you feel." I was taken aback when I could answer that I feel more like me and healthier than I have for quite a while as in months, and that is one of the greatest blessings and gifts I could ask for.

I Hate Cars

So I knew something was wrong with our Ford Taurus when I woke up early on my only day off to make the pilgrimmage to the auto shop to have the issue investigated. I used as much 'lingo' as I could think of, as in I said, "I am fairly certain my car is having problems with the struts on the front wheels due to the sound it is making." That gained some respect. Unfortunately though, I was actually right. So there is a chunk of change I saw sifting through the hourglass.

To add to the happiness, the emmisions and inspection tests were due this month as well, so while there I thought, what the heck, do it. After about 5 minutes the guy came back and said, "Come with me"....any invitation into the work zone of an autoshop is a death march....there was the car, suspended in the air, helpless and exposed. All the guy could do was point at the driver's back tire and say, "That is not safe." The tread had been worn down to the coils .....so basically a balloon waiting to pop. "No that is not safe." I kindly replied, when really I am thinking, oh goody....

Four new tires later the Taurus gets a pass on safety after 5 hours of price quotes and tire installation. And since I was having SO much fun I just could not bare to stop , I drove in a frenzied craze from Pleasant View to South Ogden and switched out cars and waited another hour with the Honda at some unbeknownst to me Jiffy Lube (I just stopped at the first legit looking place that boasted Emission and Inspection on their sign). I sat directly under a swamp cooler and stared at the water mark on the ceiling. While the Civic did not betray me..... I HATE CARS.

To be continued with the Repair of the Struts, and Natalie and the DMV.....stay tuned!

Blessings

It has been a crazy time in our lives lately. Often I wonder if it isn't really our fault for making it so. JD is still working at the hospital doing graveyard shifts, and while things have become much less busy with clinicals getting wrapped up on my end, I am still working two jobs at two different places. Sometimes one can get a little tired of the 'hello, goodbye' routine, but when it happens I think it is so important to step back and look at the blessings around us as well as the 'big picture', what really matters, what will really make a difference in the long run.

Last night I watched fireworks from my parent's house. Not only did we have a view of North Ogden's display, but also of Riverdale, Farr West, Weber Fairgrounds, South Ogden, Ogden, and so on. It hit me what a wonderful country we live in as I saw this light display of celebration in honor of those who came before us, who paved the way to a country where freedom exists and where opportunities are endless.

This afternoon, we went on a 3 mile walk along the Weber River in Riverdale. It was beautiful. Light was filtering through the leaves, it was quiet except for the sound of water and birds, cotton was floating down like snow on the pathway and bridges we were walking. It was peaceful. It was another reminder of the great blessings that are ours to experience if we can just take a moment or two to step back from the usual routines we find ourselves in and really open our eyes to the blessings around us and the manifestations of our Heavenly Father's love for us in everything the surrounds us.

And so it begins.....

Never been a blogger in my life, but figured it just may be an interesting endeavor. Now that clinicals are done, I find I have more time so an online journal of sorts could help to fill the void I am currently feeling, mind the end of clinicals came......7 hours ago.

Things are going really good with us, we moved into a beautiful house last weekend, my clinicals are done, and we just continue to work hard and play when we can; sadly more work than play.

So while this may be extraordinarily dull, hope that you can find a way to at least keep up with the comings and goings of the Speths.