I'm Done

I'm sure that Tim feels the same.

Though I'm done with classes for the semester.

Tim still has more to finish.

Poor guy.

Broken

Last weekend, Husband and I went with my brother and his wife, Tom and Tami, their cute little family and our other brother, Kurtis, to Capital Reef. Its this beautiful national park, made mostly of sandstone. You should go. It's beautiful. Even my 2 year old nephew kept pointing at the rocks saying "ooooohhhh!"

We all made the trip down south-east to celebrate the 7th birthday of my niece, Lily. We stayed in a town called Teasedale at The Laforborn Ranch. It's this cute barn/hotel (it's literally a barn with some rooms and a kitchen attached...though these are definitely not you basic country bumpkin rooms/barn). It was quite nice. Check it out!

As part of the celebration festivities, we went down to ride some of Tami's aunt's horses. Tami's Aunt JaNae lives in Torrey, UT, and houses her horse at The Laforborn Ranch, so it was easy access to her horse, Old Oxbow.

Saturday morning we got all "cowboyed up" and went out to ride the horses. Husband was THRILLED. He grew up with horses and couldn't wait to ride one. Lily got to ride first as she was the birthday girl. Then Tami got on Old Oxbow just as we saddled up another horse to ride. Kurtis was going to ride first, but the horse was stubborn and refused to move. So, Husband, with all his horse-riding wisdom, got on the horse, determined to make her do what he wanted. Well, after several minutes of a battle of stubborn wills the horse lost her footing and down she went, right on Husband's left leg, and SNAP.

We immediately got Husband in the car and Aunt JaNae and I took him to the small clinic in the nearby town. No one was there when we got there, due to the clinic being closed because the county fair taking place. We had to dispatch the doctor....it took him about 20 minutes to get there.

They took an x-ray and confirmed it was broken. They put a splint on it and told us to go to a doctor in Salt Lake to get it completely taken care of.

Poor Husband. No more horse riding for the weekend...and for awhile.

Husband didn't want his broken bone to ruin the weekend for the rest of us, so he was content to stay back and sleep while we hiked in Capital Reef and then ate at this fun pizza place.

Overall it was a fun weekend, even if there was an injury involved.

Monday morning I took Husband to see an orthopedic doctor. He took new x-rays as the ones from the clinic were quite fuzzy. And again confirmed the ankle was broken. The medial malleolus was broken clean through and had turned and with where it is sitting, if we just put a cast on, it would not heal properly. Therefore, surgery is necessary.

Due to the ankle being swollen, we scheduled the surgery for this Wednesday as they have to give the ankle time to reduce the swelling or they won't be able to close the incision after the surgery.

Husband must stay off his foot for 6 weeks after the surgery. We are in for a long recovery. Which will be interesting with work and school. But we'll get through the semester just fine, Husband is strong and will be able to do it all.

PS - If you want to see more photos from the weekend, just check out Tom and Tami's blog.

The New Job

Husband and I decided that we want pay off our debt faster than we currently are. And as I cannot work overtime because I am on salary at my current job, and we want Husband to finish his degree as quickly as possible, we decided that I would find a part time job to help us get to where we want to be while Husband finishes his schooling.

For the last several months I have been applying everywhere, I mean, EVERYWHERE.

Finally, I found an add for an "on call associate" for Macy's. I didn't know how well that type of a position would work with my schedule, but I opted to apply anyway.

I went in for the interview and no more than 5 minutes into the interview (which was not your typical interview, mind you) the store manager said that he had a position for me that was not the position that I applied for.

I was a little surprised but happy. He said that he'd had a supervisor position open for 3 months that he had not found anyone to fill until now.

Happy day!

So now I am the Sales Floor Supervisor at Macy's at the Valley Fair. I work 20 hours a week, mostly 3 nights and Saturdays. The people are fun, and the job is great.

Life is pretty busy (working a full time, and a part time job...with school starting the end of the month). We'll be lucky if I can find time to blog. Don't miss me too much. Ha ha.

But overall, we feel this is the best thing for us right now, and yes, yes, I'm going to say it, but I can't deny it, we have truly been blessed.

Backgrounds

A few days ago I chose a new background for my blog, just to discover today that it was the same background as my brother and sister inlaw's blog. So of course I had to change my background. So I did. Just to find out as I looked at my friend's blog that she had the same background I'd just changed it to! So I changed my blog background again.

I'm just hoping that no one that my blog is linked to has the same background as myself.
Because that is lame.

Study Crazy

Currently Husband is trying to finish his pre-requisits for his nursing degree (yes, go ahead and poke fun all you want, but once he gets his Master's Degree he'll be rocking it with the monies...hopefully).

He needs to finish 7 classes before January to be able to enter the program he is applying for in August. And this program is awesome! Its expensive as can be, but it will be well worth it as he will be graduating 18 months after beginning the program, with his bachelors degree (unlike any other program that would only be awarding him an associates degree after 2 years).

So, because the stakes are so high, he is studying like MAD. He has 3 classes (and a lab) this summer, and 4 (and a lab) in the fall. Seriously, he is at class until 9 o'clock during the week, comes home, eats something, then is up until 1 or 2 studying, just to get up the next day and do it all over again. Then on weekends, he is at the school library for 8 hours and spends most of Sunday afternoon studying.

And I admire him for all of it. He is so dedicated to his studies, because he knows how important it is for the grade and for us

Yeah, I wish I could spend more time with him, but I know that this small sacrifice will be worth it in the long run.

And I love him for it.

Father's Day

This Father's Day, my younger brother, Eric, and sister in law, Carlee, spoke in their ward (my parents ward). And they were assigned to speak on their fathers or other influential men in their lives. So Husband, my other brother, Kurtis, and I went to go support them and hear all the good things they had to say.

They both did an AWESOME job, it was great to hear the wonderful things they had to say about their fathers. It was especially great to hear the wonderful things they had to say about my father. Eric is an especially tender man, when he speaks of something that is very dear to him, he gets quite emotional, which in turn, caused myself (and my father) to get emotional.

My father has been an incredible influence in my life. He is one of the most selfless people I know (my mother is one of the others). He has worked incredibly hard his entire life, and all of that hard work was for his family. He has taught us all to work hard ourselves, to be honest, to love others, and to love the gospel of Jesus Christ. He has an incredible love for his wife and for his family. Its wonderful to see him with his grandchildren and how tender he is, he's gotten soft in his old age. =)

I love my father and I am so thankful for all that he has done for me and my family, he is the best father I could ask for.

Green Thumb

I am my mother's daughter.

My mom has always had a garden. Filled with zucchini, squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers and whatever other veggie she has decided to try that year. So when the back yard is filled with greens, the front garden is filled with color - purples, yellows, reds, and pinks.

Now that I live in my own place, I don't get to enjoy the sweet benefits of having a garden.
Or do I?

Last year I tried to plant tomatoes - but I got started quite late and I only had a few edible tomatoes come of it. This year I decided to get started with the best of them and try my hand er, thumb -green thumb that is! at the whole garden thing...well as much as I can living in a condo. I have but a balcony - which doesn't get nearly as much sun as I'd like. Regardless, I now have 6 planters with tomatoes, zucchinis, and a cucumber plant.

Now we will see how well they grow.

I also planted some hanging baskets with flowers, just like last year. They look great. And they did last summer as well.

Fingers crossed that come August I will be reaping the benefits of a home "garden".
If sadly, I am not - I will have to settle for planting flowers until I can get a house with a real garden.