Life is a bowl of CANDY!

Days like today...

2012-01-28T16:27:00.002-07:00

make me wish for days like this...

Flying kites on the beach at sunset. Can't get much better than that.

(October 2011 trip to Huntington Beach)

Tyson says all I talk about here is medical school and nursing school, but....

Only 2 weeks (minus 2 days), 2 clinicals, and 4 tests until I finish up nursing school, and Nate finishes his 3rd to last block ever in medical school... and we get a break from studying!

February 12, here we come!

The Wrong Movie to Rent

2012-01-20T11:01:00.000-07:00

The other day Nate and I rented Amelia Earhart.

It was a pretty good movie, except for the ending, which was sad (albeit expected).

Except, now we can't find the movie. It seems to have disappeared.

Coincidence? I'm not sure...

All I can say is, the 2nd most common phrase* around our home is currently, "I wonder what happened to Amelia Earhart?"

(*The first most common phrase around our home is, "Hey sexy")

New Year, New Goals

2012-01-02T21:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Nate and I drove home from Portland, OR. It was about a 20 hour drive. We had lots of time to make our New Year's goals.

We did not have lots of paper.

In fact, we only had a white board and a pink dry erase marker.

It was actually quite refreshing to write my goals on a dry erase board - if I didn't like them a little later, I could erase them, and no one would ever know!

However, in an attempt to better stick to my goals, I've decided to post my white board goals, irrevocably, to the Internet.

Here they are:

Use electric toothbrush. I've always had one - and never used it. I much prefer manually moving that brush around. However, my dental hygienist told me to use my electric one. It's better for my teeth. Happy New Year, teeth.
Write a thank you card weekly - if you get a thank you card from me this year, know I am truly grateful and not just crossing off my goal. :-)
Pass NCLEX - the nursing boards. The last step. The final frontier. Yay!
Send birthday cards out each month, on time, to all family members. How do grandmas DO this?!? I'm about to find out...
Buy a houseplant.
Keep houseplant alive. This is easier said than done. When Nate and I were engaged we took a marriage prep class. As an assignment, we were given a seed and told to help it grow. It was supposed to represent our marriage. We killed it. And its replacement. And the 2 replacements after that. On our 5th seed our teacher told us this was our last chance. We took it to the campus greenhouse and had them grow it for us down there. Don't worry, our marriage didn't turn out like our seed. Hopefully our new houseplant won't either.
Floss. I hate you floss. I love you, teeth. Happy New Year.
Get a job in postpartum or OR. I have decided to be picky and only accept a job I am going to like. I might take awhile...
Recycle. I've already washed off our recycling bins which were very dirty and being used as shelves in our garage. And I already put a bottle in the bin. Go me, I'm saving the world!
And because I couldn't end my goals on the number 9, I've decided to create an app this year, and sell it for lots of $$$.

This is the first year in like, 10 years that my goal list does not include,

"Read all chapters when they are assigned, not the night before the midterm."

I never did fully achieve that goal, in all those years. Oh well. Now I can really focus on the important goals. Like recycling :-)

PS - goals to be reevaluated between 12/27 and 12/31 this year.

(if the world doesn't end)

PSS - Nate made goals too, but he didn't want his to be written in pink marker.

His goals were too manly for that.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T23:35:00.001-07:00

Last New Year's Eve Nate and I went to bed at around 9:30. We laid there for a little while talking about the new year. I did not have good things to say. Nate, as usual, was more optimistic, but I was not looking forward to 2011. 2011 was going to be nothing but tests, studying, late nights, and school-induced stress. I remember saying, I really wish we could just skip 2011.

I still wish we could have skipped 2011 - or at least 90% of it.

We attended 4 funerals in 2011: Nate's beloved grandma in February, Nate's uncle in June, my nursing instructor in July, and my cherished grandpa who unexpectedly passed in September. My hometown was ravaged by hurricane Irene and is still trying to rebuild, months later. My family's business was destroyed by the flood, along with the farm that houses most of my childhood memories. Nate had one trip to the ER in February, right in the middle of my final exams. I spent several nights in March wondering how to explain to my friends and family that I had failed out of nursing school. Nate got extremely ill during his finals week in September and ended up missing about a month of school. He was finally diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and now he can't have milk or cream :-(.

(I also passed out right after giving blood last week, which was pretty embarrassing, but wouldn't have made this list if it hadn't been last week)

It was definitely a year that was more intended for learning than enjoying. And we did learn. About medicine AND life.

There were good things we will remember about 2011 - like our last minute Mexican cruise over Passover. And our road trip to NY to deliver a car (note to self- you still haven't posted about that...maybe next year...) I didn't end up failing out of nursing school- in fact, I ended up getting an academic scholarship (still not sure how that happened...). And not to brag, but Nate ended up in the top 25% of his class. Ok it was bragging - but based off of his grades at BYU, that was NOT expected.

My brother and sister both got engaged and married in 2011. (they probably liked 2011 a little more than we did...) it was great to welcome 2 new siblings to the family (though not inexpensive - 2 trips to New York a month apart isn't cheap) and even better to see them both sealed for time and eternity in the Temple.

I grew to love my church calling - teaching the 16-18 year old girls - which I wasn't sure would happen. We had a fun college visit to BYU with Skyler. And most of all, we have had several wonderful conversations with each other about diseases, disorders, clinical skills, medications, and all things medicine. We ALMOST have learned everything we don't know. :-)

And I am putting our last week of 2011 into 2012, because it was the most wonderful week of the year and doesn't really belong in 2011. We want it as more of a kick off to 2012, since 2012 is going to be awesome.

Yes, we made it through 2011. Phew. And we have BIG plans for 2012! And this New Year's Eve, we will stay up to happily welcome in the new year - and say GOODBYE to the old.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

3 Years

2011-12-29T02:25:00.001-07:00

On the 26th, Nate and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. For our first and second anniversary we have been surrounded by family, which makes it special, but not "anniversary" special... ;-)

This year we spent Christmas in Oregon with Nate's whole family - all 36.5 members. It was awesome, and because we are the youngest we were the ones that got to sleep on the floor in the sewing room. :-). It made for a lot of good jokes, and I was actually looking forward to joking in the future about sleeping on the floor for our anniversary, but I guess Nate had other plans.

He whisked me away to a "quick run to the grocery store" in the midst of the "Barney Family Olympics" (which, by the way, our team won. of course) and took me to downtown Portland to the waterfront Marriott. FANCY. (And thanks Alan, for the friends and family passes :-) )

I was very surprised, and admittedly a little disappointed at first because we were supposed to make strawberry dairquiris for everyone for dessert, and also because I had left laundry in the dryer and that is just SO rude.

I got over it pretty quickly though.

(cool -- but not as cool as a romantic stroll along the Portland waterfront)

(which was literally very cool. and a little wet and rainy)

(but still very romantic)

We also ate dinner on a FLOATING restaurant.

Which was awesome.

Nate spoils me. He also is setting my anniversary expectations quite high.

Possibly not good. We will see. :-)

Thanks for an awesome 3 years Nate!

And because this is really the only time I can get away with posting pictures of me in my pretty wedding dress....

ps...

I would like to thank:

Amyanne for making the10 batches of strawberry daiquiris it took for all family members to be satisfied,

Nate's mom for finishing our laundry and not being mad that I left it in the washer,

Nate's dad for digging through our bags to find our confirmation number since the hotel had our reservation under Nathan McBarney,

Glen and Kathryn for making the REAL quick trip to the grocery store.

And Nate for planning the best anniversary yet!

I forgot to tell you -

2011-12-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

We are PHAST!

and I am lucky

Because at this triathlon I won these shoes:

Just in case you think I'm bragging, you should know it was only a sprint triathlon.

And I only did the 5K run portion of the triathlon.

And it took me like an hour.

But I won the shoes!!!

(in a raffle, after the race)

Go me!

Another Wedding!

2011-12-02T08:18:00.000-07:00

Two new family members in two months!? We are going to have to start wearing name tags!

Tyson and Jen were married for time and all eternity in the Boston LDS temple on November 18 - which was Tyson's birthday (who gets married on their birthday? weirdo)

Anyway, we love, LOVE, loooooooooVE Jen. She is awesome. <3 (love)

(we were all actually secretly wondering how on Earth Tyson got so lucky - but we are NOT complaining!)

Welcome to the family, Jen! You are in for a treat! :-)

(because we rock)

Holidays and Compromise

2011-11-28T23:38:00.001-07:00

First of all - happy Cyber Monday, y'all.

(Am I the only one that's never heard of this day before?)

There have been a number of things Nate and I have happily compromised on with regards to holidays.

We trade off Christmases between Oregon and New York.

We eat fondue instead of grilled cheese sandwiches on Christmas Eve (that wasn't a hard compromise - I've always hated the grilled cheese tradition).

We make a big deal out of Valentine's day instead of forgetting about it (cough cough).

I go and watch Nate play in turkey bowls every Thanksgiving (even though I am morally against it because I am convinced it is the mens' way of getting out of helping cook...)

There is one thing, though, with which we absolutely could not come to a compromise: Thanksgiving morning television.

My family watches the Macy's Day Parade on Thanksgiving morning. Nate's family watches football. Neither of us was willing to budge.

So here was the result:

Don't worry, we traded off the big picture to whoever didn't have a commercial at the time.

What would we do without modern technology to help us in our compromises??

And even though neither of our families are traditionally on the ball for setting up their Christmas decorations right away, ours were all up by Thanksgiving night.

And now I will show off how pretty they are:

Our decorative Christmas tree - how my family does the tree

Our special ornaments tree- how Nate's family does the tree (only theirs is a lot bigger...)

On our special ornaments Christmas tree is a tradition of our own - each year we get an ornament or two that represent the year for us. This year's ornament:

oh, so true...

Nate's family does red bows on the staircase. My family does green garland. Our compromise was red garland. (actually, this garland was just pretty)

Both of our families collect nativity scenes. This is our favorite from our own little collection.

Merry Christmas!

(and Cyber Monday)

Busy boys make for sleepy men...

2011-11-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

I was going through old pictures the other day and found this....

I admit, I get a little embarrassed when he falls asleep in church - especially when it's before the first speaker!

But just a few videos later was this:

Guess I can't get mad at Nate...it's genetic :-)

(although, to Nate's dad's credit, that service WAS in Tongan...)

Did You Find What You Were Looking For?

2011-11-07T08:00:00.000-07:00

(or, did you find for what you were looking?...?)

Do you have Google analytics? It's great - I love to see where people come from, which posts they seem to enjoy, how slow they are at reading...you know, the usual.

But my favorite part is the "keyword" section - where Google tells me what people typed into the search box that led them to my blog.

Here is what leads people to my blog:

"dear nate i love transformers as much as you" ..... I actually do not love Transformers. Neither does Nate.

"sneeze in the air" ..... pretty sure I Googled that too, to get that picture...

"little girl tongue" ..... you are weird.

"little girl full body" ..... why did my blog show up????

"how to make a fake bowl of fake candy" ..... let me know if you find out.

"skin on skin is my new drug" ..... is it? My blog isn't even 'Adult Content'!

"intramural champion t-shirts" ..... that's right. We have them.

"not sexy nurse" ..... RUDE!!!

"sexy surgical gloves" ..... there are none.

"pillowman superhero" ..... yeah..... I actually did write that....

Moral of the story - if you Google search for something weird, don't click on a blog after - they will laugh at you.

Dear Blog Friends

2011-11-04T21:46:00.002-06:00

I'm sorry for my lack of commitment to my blog - I have been selfishly reading about other people's lives while not contributing to the blogosphere. I have, however, been pinning extremely clever things, so I haven't been completely neglectful. Pinners... you are welcome.

The cause of my absence? Honestly I've been too overwhelmed with all that's happened to even know where to start. I've decided to create a condensed timeline for your viewing pleasure:

August 28 - Hurricane Irene ravages Schoharie
September 2 - my dad called me and asked me to come help out at home
September 3 - I flew home, with a ticket to return 3 days later
September 4 - visited grandma and grandpa - my limited (but growing!) nursing knowledge told me something wasn't quite right, and they needed help
September 5 - cancelled my flight home, emailed my teachers (and got assignments emailed back), and moved my stuff down to grandma's house.
September 5-9 - had the wonderful experience of providing care for my grandpa
September 9 - Grandpa passed away
September 10 - I flew home (wide open flights, September 11 weekend)
September 16 - Nate and I flew back to NY for the funeral
September 18 - back to Vegas
September 28 - flew to NY for Ariel's wedding
October 2 - back to Vegas
October 10 - finals ... 1 semester left!

Study guide at the back of the chapter version:
*A hurricane, a funeral, a wedding, three round trips to NY in one month, and finals (for both of us)

(I realize October 10 was a month ago - since then I've been on a break from school and quite lazy, actually.)

If you're a casual reader, that should suffice. If your husband studies from 6 am until 11 pm and you are DYING for some good reading (duh, my blog is good reading!) like me, click on the links above, or scroll down for (six!) more detailed posts on the events of the last few crazy months!

(in order: first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth)

A Wedding!

2011-11-04T21:44:00.003-06:00

Amidst all that was going on in the crazy month of September, we were also planning a wedding!!

Ariel and Jeff were wed for time and all eternity in the Palmyra New York LDS Temple on September 29. The weather was a little cold and wet, but Ariel was hot, so it made up for it.

I was the Maid of Honor.

That meant I had to miss more school, fly to NY for a third time in one month, take Ariel to get her nails done, work my tushi off setting up for the reception, and hold up her train while following her around taking pictures.

But for some weird reason, I didn't miss being the bride at all.

I really hope this wasn't the best group picture... I have a feeling I'm going to get a not-too-happy phone call from my mother. Woooops.

The cultural hall was CRAZY decked out. I wish I had more pictures. Setting up took days. My dad built a covered bridge, Nate built a fence, they cut down a bunch of trees to put behind it. I tied those pink ribbons on the chairs. Pretty much the whole. freaking. time.

Welcome to the family Jeff!

Oh, and bring Ariel home for Christmas! :-)

The Funeral

2011-11-04T21:44:00.001-06:00

Grandpa's funeral was a beautiful service, an hour and forty minutes, soa little long – but beautiful nonetheless, and I don’t think anyone thought itwas too long. My dad gave the eulogy, and it was beyond excellent.

We didn't make it to the viewing (Nate had block exams that ended Friday afternoon and the viewing was Friday evening...2000 miles away), but apparently guests waited for 3hours in line to see grandpa and pay their respects. The line was out the doorof the church. Grandpa was a very loved man.

Pretty much all the cousins were there, 24 grandkids, and numerous spouses and greatgrand-children. All the aunts and uncles.

And just like Grandpa would have wanted, basketball was played immediately following the luncheon. Uncles vs. cousins. Uncles lost.

James VanDerwerken's Eulogy

When John Quincy Adams was 80 years old, he met a friend onthe streets of Boston. The friend asked,“How is John Quincy Adams?” John spokeslowly as he replied, “John Quincy Adams himself is very well, thank you. But the house he lives in is sadlydilapidated. It is tottering on itsfoundations. The walls are badlyshattered and the roof is worn. Thebuilding trembles with every wind, and I think John Quincy Adams will have tomove out before very long. But hehimself is very well.”

Jim VanDerwerken is likewise himself very well. Unfortunately, his house suffered a severestorm and he had to move out.

But before he moved out, a lot of people visited that house.

Jim VanDerwerken was born at home a mile from here on theoutskirts of Central Bridge just over eighty years ago on April 9, 1931. He was the youngest child of Elon andFlorence VanDerwerken having a brother, John, four years his elder and an oldersister, Frances. Jim grew up on the family farm with 25 dairycows and 3000 chickens. Jim was busy asa youngster. You didn’t have a choicewhether you worked or not, you worked from an early age. The cows had to be milked and fed and the eggshad to be collected, washed, and graded every day. When we look around us and see all thetechnology, computers, cellphones, spaceships – it is difficult to believe thatwhen dad was a kid, he used horses to plow fields, mow hay, and fill the haymows.

He and his brother worked right along with their dad. It was there with his dad that he learned howto work. His parents had the philosophythat all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy so there was also time toplay. Dad always spoke fondly of playingmarbles on the barn floor, building numerous forts in the trees and woods, andswimming at a number of local swimming holes.

As he was growing up, my grandmother would frequently encourageour father to grow up like the kids from the Dabler family in town. From that point on, he tried to become theboy and encouraged his children to become the persons other mothers would pointto when they told their children to look to someone as an example.

In high school at Schoharie Central, he excelled in basketballand played baseball and soccer. He alsoplayed the French Horn and sang in the choir. But he met the first love of his life when he was a junior in highschool. A boy named Wilbur Lockrow movedto town and brought with him a new style of music he had not heard before:barbershop. With Wilbur, he formed abarbershop quartet named Lads of Harmony and began performing. They even cut a record which they marketed.

His family was a religious family. They attended the Lutheran Church just downthe street. Jim was active in the churchyouth group and regularly attended Sunday services.

A good student, dad received a four year scholarship toCornell University. He attended Cornellwhere he studied Agriculture Economics. In addition to his studies, he performed in the Big Red Marching Bandand Barbershop Glee Club. Dad wassomewhat a free spirit while in college and decided after his sophomore year itwas time to see the rest of the United States. So in the spring of 1951, he left Sloansville with $30.00 in his pocketand began hitchhiking to across the country with the intent to end up inCalifornia. When he ran out of money, heplanned to stop along the way and work for a few days or week at a time to earnenough money to keep moving across the country.

He did this and arrived in Yellowstone National Park thefirst part of August. While hitchhikingthrough the park, he learned there might be work at the Old Faithful Inn. Short on cash, dad went to the Inn andsecured a job feeding and the other workers at the Inn. The first day of work, his boss told him tofix up a meal for one of the workers who happened to be a cute littleblonde. Immediately smitten, Californiawould have to wait for another year. Later that evening he asked around to find out her name. The next morning, as she came through thebreakfast line, he politely asked, “what would you like this morning Lois?"

That was the beginning of a three week summer romance. It appears he was able to steal a few kissesduring those weeks and Jim was in heaven. However, At the end of the three weeks, Lois said, “Thanks for the goodtime, but please don’t write.” Lois didnot want to marry a farmer and she didn’t want to marry someone who was not ofthe Mormon faith. She wanted to bemarried in a Mormon temple for time and eternity which was only possible if herhusband was also of the Mormon faith. Dad was a Lutheran.

After returning home to NY, Dad was obedient for about onemonth. Then he wrote the first of many,many letters. In it he wrote, “You askedme please not write, but I figured if I wrote a letter you’d at least becurious enough to open and read it.” Heended the letter with, “I’ll say goodbye for now – with hopes that I may seeyou again sometime in the future.” Withlove and only partial regrets, Jim. Justas he had anticipated, Lois was curious and did open the letter and they begancorresponding and the courting began. Not easily persuaded, she subsequently sentseveral two Dear Johns. After hereceived one of these Dear John letters, his mother encouraged him to moveon. However, his dad gave him greatadvice he has always treasured, my grandfather counseled him, “You know, afaint heart never won a fair maiden.” Ifdad were here today, he would probably give the same advice to a few of hisgrandsons. He persistently went forward,undeterred. Two years of letter writinglater, Lois finally agreed to marry him. Lois had always wanted eight children and before she would marry Jim hehad to agree for the children to be brought up in the Mormon faith.

On December 5, 1953, Jim and Lois were married and he broughther back from Utah to Central Bridge where he began farming.

A year later, Debra, the first of the eight childrenarrived. Shortly after her birth, Jimarrived at home and informed Lois he had bought a farm on Creek Road, aboutthree miles from Central Bridge. Thefarm was right on the Schoharie Creek and had about 100 acres of riverbottomflats. This was news to her since shehad not even seen the farmhouse. If youhave ever been to the farm, she agrees with you that it was one of the bestdecisions he ever made.

Cindy arrived a year after Debra followed 17 months later byMichael. Now that he had a boy, theyslowed down a bit. Three more boysarrived in two year intervals, Joseph, Paul, and Ted. They now had six children under ten years ofage. More importantly, now he had a barbershop quartet hecould work with. Julia made herappearance two years later. Lois fulfilledher dream of eight children when Jay joined the family four years later.

When Lois moved backhere in 1953, there were only three other members of the Mormon Church in thisarea. She faithfully travelled to thenearest congregation in Schenectady to attend her Sunday services. True to his word, Jim allowed the children tobe raised in the Mormon faith. Heremained active in the Lutheran Church up to the time Joseph was born in1959. He had thought that over time,Lois would waiver in her faith and join the Lutheran church. However, Lois’ faith did not waiver and herlove for the gospel of Jesus Christ increased causing him to sincerelyinvestigate whether the Mormon faith was true. After months of investigation, he got down on his knees and askedHeavenly Father whether it was true. Hereceived an unquestionable answer to his prayer that it was. That was the turning point in his life as heembraced the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ten years ago, dad wrote the following: “that there isn’t a day goes by wherein Idon’t thank my Father in Heaven for:

1) Meeting Lois: The Lord put an angel in my path

2) Her love of the gospel causing me tosincerely investigate the mormon faith

3) For me getting down on my knees andasking Heavenly Father if it is true and to have the courage to be baptized andjoin the Mormon Church.

He went on to write

What adifference that one decision has made:

1. In my life: to have the Holy Ghost as a constantcompanion when I’m worthy to help make many right decisions.

2. In Lois life: to have a worthy priesthood holder to haveand honor her as mother in the home

3. In our marriage relationship: to have an eternal companionship to workthrough all the joys and heartaches. Torealize and know the healing power of Christ’s Atonement to work through atragedy as difficult as the loss of our beautiful daughter Julia.

4. In the lives of our children: to have the anchor of the teachings of theGospel to teach our children sound principles so they weren’t tossed to and froby every wind of false doctrines. Thegreatest joy we have as parents is to see our children become the individualstheir Heavenly Father wants them to be.

5. In the lives of our children’schildren: to be taught these sameprinciples and doctrines for generations to come.”

For the next fifty years, dad’s life was driven by applyingthe gospel principles taught by Jesus Christ. He loved the gospel and our Savior.

Shortly after his baptism, a congregation of the Mormon faithwas organized in Central Bridge and dad was the appointed and ordained to bethe presiding leader. He remained inthat position for the next sixteen years.

The church members first met in the house next door but theywished to have an actual church building to worship in. At the time, members of a congregation had toprovide 20% of the cost of a church and church headquarters would provide theremaining 80%. The members of the churchwere of modest means and had no way to raise that amount of money. Jim, with some other members of the church,formed a construction corporation named Liahona, Inc. to build thischurch. Jim was the president of thecorporation and along with other members of the congregation donated 20 % oftheir labor put into building the church to raise the 20% of the fundsneeded. Without these generous donationsby Jim and many of the members of the congregation here today, this buildingwould not be here.

Jim’s decisions were not influenced by the love ofmoney. (Many times, we as kids wishedthey were, but that wasn’t dad) When hebought the farm, he was just out of college with no money. No bank would lend him the money so he wentto the owner of the grain mill here in town, Earnest Howard. Mr. Howard loaned him the money because hebelieved in him. That was 1955. He planted corn and the crop lookedgreat. Then in October, the first of thethree major floods that have hit our farm flooded and damaged the crops he wasgoing to use to pay the mortgage. Mr.Howard was a patient mortgagor. Not onlydid Mr. Howard teach my father about trust and belief in people, he showed mercyand gave him time to make the payments.

Although we children did not know it until we had grown up, itwas difficult financially raising eight children on a farm. We didn’t know we were poor or about the manytimes our parents struggled in paying the mortgage on time. But Mr. Howard taught my parents aboutempathy. He believed in mom and dad and allowedthem to pay the mortgage when they had the money. Dad always remembered that mercy and showedthat same mercy to others. He always believedpeople would do the right thing in the end. If people disappointed him and were not astrustworthy as he believed they were or should have been in business dealingsand otherwise, he would say, “He must have needed the money more than me.” And he truly believed that.

Dad was not easilyoffended by others. He would frequentlycounsel his family and others to “Let it go. Don’t let someone else’s problem become your problem.” He would go on to say, “It’s not worth losinga friend over.”

In his adult life, dad did many different occupations, schoolteacher, GE supervisor, insurance salesman, construction business owner, and landlord. But even with those jobs, he always wanted tobe a farmer. He loved to plant seeds andsee them grow. Every spring for the past fifty five years, he plantedcrops on the farm. In June of this year,as his body was weakening and unbeknownst to us all the cancer growing, my sonsand I were privileged to work along side of him as he drove the tractor andplanted this last crop of pumpkins.

Every year toward the latter part of August, he would walk thefields to see what kind of stand of pumpkins were growing. The foliage covers the ground so you have toactually walk in the field to see how many pumpkins are beneath the leaves andhow they look. But this year wasdifferent because he was too weak to walk. He had always been so big and strong to me, it was difficult to see himin that condition. So I walked thefield for him. It was a beautiful cropwith many pumpkins just starting to turn orange. I picked a good-looking medium pumpkin andbrought it up to the house to show him and told him the crops look great forOctober.

Two days later the flood hit the valley, taking with it thefoliage and most of our pumpkins and leaving the few remaining unsaleable. Among the lovely flowers sent to our familythat are here with us, I have placed the only surviving pumpkin. He always had on a his hat, so I placed it onthe pumpkin.

For the past 26 years, Dad has been able to able to providefor his family and bring joy to many families. He had a vision of affordable, family fun and created the pumpkinpatch. It brings great joy to him to seefamilies together enjoying each other’s company on the farm. He is a kid at heart and with his love ofbuilding tree forts still within him, he designed and built a four-story treehouse on the farm around a large maple tree for the grandkids and public toenjoy. He is blessed to have a wife whoallowed him the flexibility to build a fort which became more and moreelaborate as the building progressed and in the end cost more than what hepurchased the whole farm for.

Even in the pumpkin patch, dad’s love of the gospel comesout. He has always tried to live the TenCommandments. One of the commandments is“Thou shall keep the Sabbath Day holy.” Being a farmer and having animals, dad knew there were some jobs thathad to be done on Sunday, feeding and caring for the animals. But he never did work on Sunday which couldbe done on another day. We never did hayon Sunday even if it was going to rain on Monday. We never sold animals or produce on the Sabbath. He believes it is the Lord’s day. So when he started the pumpkin patch, it wasnever a question of whether to open on Sunday. We didn’t. That decision was madelong ago – money lost was never a factor. He is a man who stands by his convictions and those who came in contactwith him knew it.

Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind,obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. Many of you know these are the tenets of the boyscout law. Dad was a scouter andembraced the scout law. Those twelvecharacteristics describe dad. Hevolunteered and was active in the scouting program his whole life donatingcountless hours of service in helping the youth. Even up to this past spring he was the meritbadge counselor for family life, personal finance, citizen in the community,nation, and world working with the scouts in Troop 46 here in Central Bridge.

One of his few regretsin life was only becoming a life scout. Youhave to complete all the requirement before turning 18. He didn’t want his sons and his daughter’ssons to have that same regret. He, andhis wife, instilled the tenets of the scout law and love of scouting in their children. All five of his sons are eagle scouts andnext month, the eleventh of his grandsons will be receiving his eaglerank. All his sons and many of his grandsons are scouts and/or active in scouting program.

Before I close, I would like to share a couple of my father’sthoughts on dying.

When he was courting my mother, dad’s grandmother, whom hewas very close to, suffered a stroke and was fading fast. Dad wrote thefollowing to her in one of his letters: “She’s not in pain, thank goodness, and I feel the good Lord has chosenthis as her time to go. Death, I feelcomes as a kindly physician, relieving people from their aches and pains-performing the only operation that will relieve them of theirdifficulties. We shouldn’t be concernedwith death – our job is living. When youbury someone, we bury a body, but not a life – the life lives on forever.

When I was a little boy, dad explained death in simple termsa little boy could understand. He said,“Remember when we went to the Hill Cumorah pageant in Palmyra and it was lateat night when we drove home. During theride home, you fell asleep. When wearrived home, I carried you up to your bed. The next morning, you woke up rested in your bed. Death is like that. One day you will go to sleep, and while youare sleeping, Jesus will carry you to his house and you will wake up with himthere the next morning.” Those wordshave given me solace from that time up to this day.

In closing, please think of dad and ponder our own lifeexperiences as I would like to read a poem dad recited frequently when speakingat many of his friends’ funerals:

I read of a man who stoodto speak

At the funeral of afriend

He referred to the dateson her tombstone

From the beginning . . .to the end.

He noted that first camedate of birth

And spoke the followingdate with tears.

But he said what matteredmost of all,

Was the dash betweenthose years.

For that dash representsall the time

That she spent alive onearth . . .

And now only those wholoved her

Know what that littleline is worth.

For it matters not, howmuch we own;

The cars . . . the house. . . the cash.

What matters is how welive and love

And how we spend ourdash.

So think about this longand hard . . .

Are there things you’dlike to change?

For you never know howmuch time is left,

That can still berearranged.

If we could just slowdown enough

To consider what’s trueand real,

And always try tounderstand

The way other peoplefeel.

And be less quick toanger,

And show appreciationmore

And love the people inour lives

Like we’ve never lovebefore

If we treat each otherwith respect

And more often wear asmile . . .

Remembering that thisspecial dash

Might only last a littlewhile.

So, when your eulogy’sbeing read

With your life’s actionsto rehash . . .

Would you be proud of thethings they say

About how you spent yourdash?

May we treasure our memories of knowing Jim as husband,father, grandfather, cousin, uncle, teacher, and for all of us here today, afriend. And until we meet again try toemulate qualities of his life that he has taught us through the years is myprayer in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen

Obituary - a dirty word

2011-11-04T21:43:00.003-06:00

Obituary is kind of a dirty word. I've never particularly loved it. It is supposed to be about someone's life, but the word alone means someone's died.

My family doesn't use dirty words. They called what went into the newspaper "Life Legacy". I like that.

Life Legacy

Esperance (Schoharie County): James Elon VanDerwerken, 80, passed away at his home in Esperance on September 9, 2011, after a short illness. He was born in Central Bridge to Elon and Florence (Drumm) VanDerwerken. In 1949 he graduated from Schoharie Central School where he began his lifetime love of basketball. He received his B.S. from Cornell University in 1953. While there he was in the Select Glee Club, the Big Red Marching Band and was president of the agricultural fraternity. On December 5, 1953, he married Lois Gutke of Smithfield, Utah, whom he met when they were both working at Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park.

In 1955 they purchased a dairy farm on Creek Road in Esperance, New York. Their farming operation evolved from a dairy to raising registered Holsteins. Later they grew field crops and vegetables for market. During this time James supplemented his income with various other jobs – working for General Electric, teaching school and running a construction business. In 1985 he and Lois founded PickAPumpkin Pumpkin Patch. He loved sharing his farm with families so they could make their own happy family memories there.

He was active for decades in the Boy Scouts of America who awarded him the Silver Beaver for his years of service. He played French horn in and was a charter member of the Schoharie Valley Concert Band. For many years he was the Secretary/Treasurer of the Schoharie Valley Association. He was also a member and past president of Farm Bureau.

He was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In church he served as branch president/bishop for 21 years in Schoharie Valley and Fort Plain. As President of Liahona, Inc. he was instrumental in raising the funds for and constructing the church building on Church Street in Central Bridge.

James is survived by his wife, Lois; their children: Debra Schaffer of Central Bridge, NY; Cynthia (Craig) Taylor of Meridian, ID; Michael (Tina) of Scotia, NY; Joseph (Suzy) of Pittsgrove, NJ; Paul (Leslie) of Las Vegas, NV; Ted (Mayona) of Tooele, UT; Jay (Angela) of Schoharie, NY; 34 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.

He is also survived by his brother, John VanDerwerken, of Central Bridge, NY, and several nieces and nephews. James was predeceased by his daughter Julia, two grandchildren and his sister, Frances LaMonica.

Thoughts

2011-11-04T21:43:00.001-06:00

When I was 11, my brother Tyson found my super secret hidden journal, read it, and then wrote in it so I would know he read it. I was mortified.

This blog is not my personal journal. My personal journal is still super secret and hidden, and if my brother read it, I would probably still be just as mortified.

However, I am going to share two excerpts with you, from my super secret journal. I usually don't like to do this, but this is such a special story that I want to share.

Friday, September 3, 2011

This morning my dad called me right before I went into lab. “We could really use your help out here.” I thought about it during lab, talked to Nate, and booked a plane ticket - $250 yuck– a few hours later. I’m flying out tomorrow morning at 5 am to help my family with flood relief.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

My dad was inspired to call me 2 weeks ago, I’m sure of it. Not to help with flood relief like we thought, but to help with grandma and grandpa relief. I’m so glad others around me have the Spirit to guide them, and even when I’m too distracted with the things of the world to receive promptings, the Lord still makes sure I’m where I need to be. I was only planning on staying here from Saturday until Tuesday – flying home in the early afternoon in order to be home in time for my (what used to seem so important) clinicals. Once I saw the state of Grandpa I thought about staying to help. Still, I wavered – missing school is hard, and making it up is even harder – especially clinicals!

Monday night I was sure I was leaving the next day. I even checked into my flight. Tuesday morning I got up early to help my grandma one more time. While I was there, we decided to wash him and I fed him, crushed his pills, took his blood sugar, emptied his foley bag… by the time I looked at my watch, it was almost time to go. Then the hospice nurse came and spent a lot of time talking to me and giving me instructions. By the time she left, I should have already left for the airport – but by that time I knew I was supposed to stay. And I was. I know Heavenly Father wanted me there. Aunt Angela made the remark, “Cami, next time can you just listen to the Spirit so we don’t have to have a hurricane to get you out here to help Grandma??” Aunt Suzy told me, “After you got there, when I talked to Grandma it seemed like 10,000 pounds had been lifted off her shoulders. You helped her more than you’ll ever know.”

And she helped me more than she’ll ever know. I left a shaky, scared nursing student, feeling like I’d never done anything important. I came home a confident nurse, confident in my skills, confident in working with families, and confident in my ability to provide competent patient care. I was able to spend invaluable time with my grandpa before he died. And I was able to bond with my grandma in a way that I think few people can. I was able to experience the experience of death. I still feel like I didn’t deserve to be a part of his actual passing in that way, and so blessed to have seen it at the same time. It is something I will never forget. The veil was so thin in that moment – I know there were other people in the room, I know my Grandpa was looking at something, or someone. I wonder every day what it was he was seeing in that moment, right before his spirit left his body. I asked him, “Grandpa, what are you looking at?” His eyes were so wide, so focused, for the first time in a while. It was so clear he was seeing something or someone. I wonder if it was Juila, James, and Grace? Maybe his parents, or even his grandparents? Maybe all those people? Maybe the Savior? Reaching toward him, holding his hand, and guiding his spirit away, saying “Jim, we’ve got a long list of work for you up there, let’s get going!” I really felt that something sacred was transpiring, and felt the urge to bow my head in reverence. Right before I panicked, and called for my dad, that is.

Right before I brought grandma over to realize what had happened. I wish she had seen him leave.

But I feel blessed every day that I was in the right place at the right time to experience that, and also to help my grandma in her time of need. I hope that I can be as open to the Spirit as my dad, so that someday I won’t need other people to facilitate me being where I need to be. Monday night before I was supposed to leave I felt a very strong impression to stay, a voice inside of me said, “stay, stay, STAY.” I convinced myself I was imagining it, and decided to go home anyway. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father forgave my stubbornness and stupidity and provided a way for me to stay anyway. So, so grateful. It is something I will never forget and never, ever regret. Something I think I will think about every single day for the rest of my life – at least it seems like that now.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Yesterday in Relief Society, Elizabeth (Seth’s wife) gave the most perfect, insightful, spiritual analogy I’ve ever heard in my whole life.

She told about running a marathon, how she finished and then hung out at the finish line and watched for a bit. Runners would come in, usually one at a time, because during the 26 miles there was a lot of room to spread out. As each runner came in, the crowd at the finish line would cheer for the runner. Most of the crowd would politely clap, unenthusiastically, like, yay runner…. But with each runner, there was a small pocket of people that would go crazy cheering. They were so proud of their loved ones for finishing the race. She talked about one runner that was struggling, and struggling badly. She didn’t know how he had even been able to make it this far. When he got near the end, and his pocket in the crowd started cheering, an old woman in a brown pant suit hopped over the barrier and ran with him until the end. She was so proud, and wanted to help him finish, to be there for him and with him.

She compared it to another race. Where, at the end, there are people all around clapping, and welcoming us to the finish line – but each runner has their own pocket of family and friends, going crazy, so excited to see them, so excited in their success. And sometimes, someone from that pocket will jump over the barrier, and run with us that last, long, hard part, and bring us home. The veil is so thin at the end, and our friends and family who have gone before us are there cheering, I’m sure of it. I’m sure that’s what happened to my grandpa, as well, at the end.

The Miracle of Death

2011-11-04T21:42:00.001-06:00

I missed a whole week of school in order to stay in New York and care for my grandpa. For one of my makeup assignments I had to write a paper about my experience with hospice and end of life care (it was an assignment, so there's a lot of nursing lingo...sorry). I wrote it on the airplane ride home, the day after Grandpa died, when I was emotional and pensive. The result was a very personal paper that I wasn't sure if I should post.

I decided to because after watching my Grandpa pass from this life to the next, I really wanted to talk about it - to see if anyone else had had the same experience I had with passing. It was such a beautiful thing, such a miraculous thing to witness, and I feel so, so blessed that I was the one who was lucky enough to see such a special, and sacred thing. And I decided that, just in case anyone else had the same experience, it's worth sharing.

My Experience with Hospice and End of Life Care

Hospice nursing is unlike anything I’ve learned or experienced so far in nursing school. In school we learned a little about hospice – it’s palliative care, we treat the patient’s symptoms, and make them comfortable, etc. I guess I didn’t really understand exactly what that meant, because after my first chat with a hospice nurse, I was dumbfounded by the difference.

Two months ago, my grandfather had an MRI and the doctors discovered a brain tumor the size of a baseball in his frontal lobe. They did some CT scans and found other nodules in his lungs. He was in the hospital for a few days, then sent home with hospice. His health has been declining slowly since then. Last Saturday I flew home to see my grandpa, and help my family clean up our town after it was devastated by a hurricane and flooding. While I was there, amidst all the stress of evacuating, flooding, and losing his farm crops, my grandfather took a turn for the worse. Saturday night, when I got to New York, my grandpa was walking (with assistance), feeding himself, and coherent and oriented. You could tell he was sick and deteriorating, but he seemed to be not too bad. My family asked me, since I’m an expert at all things nursing, how long I thought he had to live. I told them, at Kindred Hospital, he could live for several more months, if not longer. He was the worse my family had ever seen, but I was used to patients much, much worse off than he was. Still, we set up a bed for me in the front room (next to his hospital bed) and I stayed with him to care for him around the clock.

The next morning I took his blood sugar before breakfast. It was 330 – very high, but he was on Dexamethasode, a steroid for his tumor, and high blood sugar is expected. He fed himself a bowl of cereal, but struggled doing so. We walked him to the bathroom, which turned out to be very, very difficult for him. He almost fell several times on the way. After we bathed him, we took him back to bed – he seemed extremely tired.

While assessing him, I discovered a small pressure ulcer on his right elbow, and a slightly larger one on his coccyx. He also had pitting edema in his ankles, which is expected with the Dexamethasome. His lung sounds and heart rate were good, and he didn’t have a temperature.

The next day, the hospice nurse came. He was unable to get out of bed. She told me he was in “transition”. I didn’t really know what that meant, but she put a foley in him and told us not to worry about his meds, or turning him (to avoid pressure ulcers). What!? No meds? No turning? She didn’t even take his temperature, because “she could feel with her hand”. His pulse ox was at 92, but she didn’t seem to mind that even. She also said if he didn’t want to eat, don’t pressure him to, let him do whatever he wanted. It was hard to listen, and I told my grandma all the things we would do differently at the hospital. Luckily, she let me continue to turn him, and as long as he had a gag reflex, I continued to persuade him to eat, even though he didn’t have an appetite. I also crushed his pills, using a small glass inside of a large class, and hid them in his applesauce. In my own hospice nursing strategy, I discovered when there’s a will (and a gag reflex) there’s a way.

Apparently all hospice nurses are not equal, because a few days later another nurse came and told us to disregard some of the things the other nurse had said, such as not feeding him, not giving him his meds, and not turning him. I agreed with her, excellent patient care until the very end, no matter how soon it was!

My experience wasn’t just with hospice care – it was with rural hospice care. And there were a few times I had to get a little creative. One night we had a big flood and all roads coming to our house were closed. My grandfather’s foley was leaking terribly. I did a little research and after noticing a lot of sediment in his bag I wondered if the tube was clogged. I decided to flush it, a procedure I hadn’t done before. I did a little research and found I needed an alcohol swab, a syringe, and sterile water – none of which I had. So I got creative. I threw some gloves on and dug through the trash where the foley insertion kit was and found a syringe. I sterilized it. Then I found some iodine and used that in lieu of an alcohol swab. I opened a new bottle of drinking water and used that to flush. I told my grandma I would fail out of nursing school if my professors saw me, but it would have to do.

When I told the nurse the next day what I’d done, she told me not to worry, “the home is a clean environment”. Well… the bladder is a sterile environment…but it’s a nice thought J. I didn’t say that, but I thought it.

Thursday morning I took my grandfather’s blood sugar (even though the first nurse told me to stop taking it). The meter read ‘HI’ which indicates it is over 500. He was breathing rapidly, deeply, and had very fruity breath. It was the first time I’d actually smelled fruity breath, and I tried to encourage everyone in my family to smell it – they weren’t as excited as I was.

His respirations at this point were over 40, and his heart rate was nearly 130. His temperature was fluctuating a lot, in his hands, feet, and temporally, though his knees always seemed cold. His urine output was starting to slow down, but it was still around 20-30 per hour. And he was unresponsive. I called his doctor and told her his symptoms – all but the unresponsive. She suggested insulin. Then, when I told her about his lack of responsiveness, she got really serious. She told me to talk to my grandma about our options – which were grinding up his metformin and putting it under his tongue, Lantus, or regular insulin- she told me to tell my grandma what each of those entailed. Then she told me that this wasn’t a bad way to go – that he would just slip away quickly if we offered true palliative care. She told me to explain everything to my grandma, and call her back with our decision.

That was a very hard thing to do. I explained that with regular insulin, we would have to take his blood sugar three times a day, and then administer a subcutaneous shot. I explained how with Lantus, we would give it once a day, still subq. I explained that while these measures might relieve the symptoms of hyperglycemia for a very short amount of time, and maybe make him responsive a little longer, they would only prolong the inevitable – and maybe not even that.

After some discussion, and some tears, she decided not to prolong it, but to let him pass from this life as his body was trying to do. I called the doctor back and let her know. She explained to me what was in the ‘care kit’ in the fridge. Turns out with hospice you’re allowed to have morphine in your fridge for months. And it’s even raspberry flavored. She gave me permission to use the meds in the kit if I thought it was necessary. I felt a huge responsibility – deciding when it was necessary and explaining all these things to my poor grandmother, who was actually glad to let someone come in and take over- she was very tired at this point.

After we made that decision I quietly asked the doctor how long his body could sustain this much exertion. Of course, she didn’t want to give me a number, but she finally told me probably not more than 48 hours. We began calling our family members. While my grandma made calls, I tidied the home. I lit a few candles, because his foley had started leaking again and kind of smelled. I vacuumed and swept, and put several chairs in the room with my grandpa. I turned on some soft music and put out a plate of cookies and some watermelon. I wanted it to be peaceful and comfortable, and I didn’t want my grandma to worry about anything.

Family and friends started pouring in. I felt like I was giving report every couple minutes. HR up to 138. Respirations now above 40. Output down to 10. No mottling of the skin, which was a very welcome sign to me. Or welcome lack of a sign, I guess. I answered a lot of questions – what was happening to his body? Why was he breathing so fast? Was he in pain? Why do I look at the urine so much? Why am I looking at my watch so much? What was going to happen to him, physiologically? People stayed at our side until midnight, when the last guest left. My grandma and I stayed up all night, holding his hands, watching his breaths – they were still deep and fast, all night long. I gave him some morphine at 8 pm when his facial expression seemed to be a grimace, then at midnight he was restless so I gave him some Lorazepam (or as my grandma called it, Razmataz – she never could quite get the pronunciation right), and again at 4 am. We listened to music and cried. We occasionally dozed off, but my watch was set to check on him every hour. His output fell to 5 ccs per hour, and then less. His respirations rose to 50, his heart rate, which had been very irregular a few days before, was beating too fast to be irregular, and was at 140. Around 6 am I noticed some mottling on his big toes, and by 9 am it was all the way up to his knees. At 8 am I left the room, and didn’t allow anyone in it for an hour, letting my grandma have time alone with him to say her last goodbye. I don’t think she knew how close he was to going, but I did point out the mottling to her, and she did know it was what I had been waiting for, checking for every hour for a few days. At 10 am the hospice nurse came to check on us. His foley had been leaking badly and I had poured some baby powder on the sheets, hoping to mask the smell. I told her I would have liked to change the sheets, but I felt he was too unstable to move at all. She told me, “we have an unstable patient, but a stable plan”.

I don’t think I’ll ever forget her telling me that, or ever be OK with what she did next. She spend a good 20 minutes changing his bedding and clothes – and I helped. It was not an easy task, and it required a lot of rolling and holding, and pulling. There are a lot of things I’m proud of myself for, things I handled this week that a few months ago, I wouldn’t have been able to handle. There are a few things, though, that I regret. The first thing was letting the nurse move him around like she did when I knew he was so unstable. The second thing I regret is that I didn’t watch him closely enough during that time. Everyone had a task – my grandma was changing his pillowcase; my uncle was emptying the electric razor from his shave. My two younger cousins were taking his sheets to the washer. My father was walking the hospice nurse out to her car, asking her how long she thought he had – “maybe a couple of hours, maybe a couple of days”.

I was washing his face with a cloth when I noticed his breaths had slowed down. I watched him open his eyes wide, wider than I’d seen them in days. He looked very intently at something – something that was in the room, but that no one else could see. I said, “Grandpa, what are you looking at?”, surprised to see him so alert and focused. Then I watched as his spirit literally left his body. I know the exact moment it happened, the exact moment his life ended - something changed in him, and it was very clear that he was gone. Then he drew in one last breath, turned his head forward, and was still.

I wish I had waited a minute, collected my thoughts, quietly asked the 10- and 12- year old cousins to go outside to get my dad, quietly held my grandma’s hand and brought her over to him. More than anything, I wish my grandma had been watching him at the very end, instead of me, and had seen the transition that took place. Instead, I sort of panicked. “Ethan, go get my dad!” I yelled at my 10-year old cousin. Everyone could tell from my voice something was wrong. The kids didn’t leave to get my dad – instead they came closer and stared. Finally their father directed them out. Meanwhile, I had my grandma come over. We heard the screen door slam shut as everyone came running back inside. I knew he was gone, but I never verbalized it – and for some reason, no one else could tell. My uncle kept saying, I think he’s still alive. My grandma looked at me with her eyebrows raised, and I just shook my head. My dad came in, and I shook my head again to him. My grandma kept saying, “I can’t believe he’s gone”. She knew he was leaving, but she didn’t think it would happen that way. I think if we hadn’t moved him around so much, things could have ended differently. My grandma could have been sitting by him holding his hand, and she could have been the one to watch him go, instead of me.

In any case, that’s how it happened. My grandma and father started calling relatives, while the nurse (who hadn’t made it very far) and I took out his foley and dressed him in clothes my grandma picked out. Then we emptied all his pills and his comfort kit into a bag of kitty litter she had, cut his name off of all the bottles and prescriptions (their HIPAA policy) and I witnessed her dispose of them. Then I tidied up again to prepare for the onslaught of visitors that were going to come. I lit a candle, turned on some soft music, and again, set up chairs. The nurse asked about a funeral home. I assured her I would call them, then she left. People started arriving. After letting some of the smaller children sit with him, I sent them up the road to my house to make a plate of cookies. After a few hours of visitors, I called the funeral home.

Though I don’t like exactly how he went, and I don’t know how I’ll get over knowing he could have lived a few more hours at least (which may not seem like a big deal, except for the family members that were on their way when it happened), I remember watching, thinking, this is how it’s supposed to be; quiet, without tubes going in and out, without a machine breathing for you, without 40 people in the room while you’re stripped naked, pounding on your chest to no avail. Just a quiet, peaceful, passing, surrounded by your loved ones. (Loved ones trying to help by changing the sheets, but for sure doing more harm than good.)

And that’s why I like hospice care – a specialty I never thought was for me. I truly feel like I experienced a new kind of miracle, one most people don’t know about, but one just as special as the miracle of birth, and the miracle of life – the miracle of death. Though hard and painful, and though I’ve cried more tears in the past few days than I have in several years, experiencing and seeing death in this way was sort of beautiful, in its own way. Helping people see this side of death is something I think I could see myself doing. And I think that’s what a good hospice nurse can do.

Hurricane Irene Damages Farm

2011-11-04T21:41:00.000-06:00

     Flooding caused by Hurricane Irene has significantly damaged our farming operation. Although we moved our hay and farming machinery to higher ground, the flood surpassed any previous flooding by 12 feet. All three levels of the barn were under water, with water three feet deep in the Gift Shop. After living here 55 years we never expected the barn to flood this high. Thankfully, the water did not reach our home.

    In the barn we lost all of our refrigerators, freezer and cooler as well as all the electrical appliances we use to prepare food in the Snack Bar. We saved the donut machines just as the water was entering the ramps.

    The side ramps used to enter the barn were torn from their footings but fortunately they did not float away. The bridge to the corn maze did float away and we’ve not found it. (If you happen to find our bridge, we will trade a bag of donuts for its safe return.) The theater seats were a total loss as was the inside of “Through the Looking Glass”. The carpeting that was under the hay tunnel and wood maze weighed 3,500 lbs. when we deposed of it at MOSA. The majority of the pumpkin crop washed away. There have been reports of pumpkins floating down the Hudson.

    Despite our heavy losses, many farmers and our neighbors in the area suffered much worse than we did. Our hearts go out to them as they struggle to rebuild. We appreciate the support of many of our church friends who have helped us with the daunting task of cleaning the entire barn which was blanketed with a layer of mud.

The night of the flood.

The morning after, surveying the pumpkin fields. No more pumpkins...

Look how happy!

"If I could have a dollar for every speck of mud...."

Aspen...in a skirt... :-)

Giant refrigerator

They had some fun too....

Picking Up the Pieces

2011-08-31T09:57:00.002-06:00

"In New York City, they rode out Irene by buying out the whiskey in Williamsburg and watching Netflix in their apartments. In Schoharie County, they watched the waters surround the Grand Union grocery, cover every gas station in town, and wipe out a year's worth of crops. They lost the diner, they lost the church, the lost the road out of town."

read article here: http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/A-day-full-of-fear-after-the-flood-2146810.php

Three days after the flood, residents of Middleburgh are hard at work, but residents of Schoharie are still not allowed to start cleaning up their homes.

Nicolle's home

Bridge Street - that brown home did not used to be there

Alison's home

Water line under the clock.

The Conglomerate...

Businesses (including ours, the Pumpkin Patch) aren't sure yet if they'll be opening back up.

I really hope this one does - their chocolate covered gummy bears are one of a kind. I always pick up a bag when I come home.

A home down the road from us...well, used to be down the road from us. No one is really sure where this home ended up, after the flood picked it up off it's foundation, carried it over the bridge, and down the river. Not much cleaning up here.

Transformers are still exploding, gas is still leaking, homes are still being destroyed - 3 days later.

Some of the animal casualties from Irene.

"Dead cows would have to be hauled off the fields, after the basement was pumped out, after the chasm in the driveway was filled in, after the boulders were cleared off the road, after the snapped telephone poles were put back in the ground"

http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/A-day-full-of-fear-after-the-flood-2146810.php

Fish don't belong here...

2-foot, 25-pound carp in the road

Grand Union

This is the kind of picture that would show up on America's Funniest Home Videos.

Except it isn't funny.

It seems like the whole town of Middleburgh showed up to help at Hubie's right away. Probably because it's the best pizza around, and people really want them to open back up. And soon!

After the water had "receded".

If you look closely, you can see my parents' car parked on the side of the road.

Middleburgh Main Street

National Guard most likely deemed this structure 'unsafe'.

The orange tags on the door had told owners they had to leave, and right away.

The road into town.

I want to point out that newspapers are calling it a "miracle" that there were no deaths. I disagree. It's not because of a miracle, it's because people in Schoharie County are smart - well, smart and prepared, and a little bit scared. When the dam sirens started going off, when they were told to evacuate, they listened. In New York City 350,00 people were told to evacuate. Only 9,000 listened. In Schoharie, everyone listened.

When I was in high school, we used to have dam drills. The alarms would sound, we would go out to the school buses, and drive up the flood evacuation routes.

And yes, there are signs. Not because we are in a flood zone, because we're not. We are in a dam zone.

A sketchy dam zone.

On another note - a lot of people have said "I can't believe it was so bad, so far inland".

Well, most deaths from hurricanes are inland. According to Fox news:

"Many people were surprised by the destruction that Hurricane Irene wrought in communities far inland. But National Weather Service records show that 59 percent of the deaths attributed to hurricanes since the 1970s have been from freshwater flooding."

http://www.foxnews.com/weather/2011/08/29/residents-return-home-to-assess-irene-damage-with-floodwaters-still-rising/#ixzz1WccVxNcE

Stay tuned... next up: efforts to clean up the Pumpkin Patch. :-(

It's Called Irene

2011-08-29T17:52:00.002-06:00

Yesterday morning I awoke to my phone ringing - the caller ID said "Home".

"Why aren't you in church?" I asked, confused as to why my family was calling me from home during their normal church hours.

"Have you not been watching the news?" replied my little brother. "There is this hurricane all up the east coast, you know. It's called Irene."

An hour later they called me back to tell me the flood evacuation sirens were sounding. A local sheriff had knocked on their door and told them to evacuate. To head for higher ground. In fact, most of the entire county was told to evacuate. Over 24 hours later, most people have still not been able to return to their homes...or at least, what's left of their homes...

If you watched the national news and saw coverage of the hurricane you probably heard some reporter saying, "Everything is OK - people definitely over-prepared, this storm was no where near as bad as it could have been."

If you watched coverage of the storm in New York, you probably heard Governor Cuomo say, "Great job, New Yorkers, you really pulled together and made it through this!" And by New Yorkers, he means New York City New Yorkers. Because the rest of New York has not made it through this yet.

If you watched this news, you probably didn't hear that over 200 National Guard personnel are in Schoharie County, providing rescue, assessing the damage, enforcing Martial law, and keeping news crews (and everyone else) out. You probably did not see this:

My dad walking down our road to the bridge - currently no roads into or out of Schoharie county are open, and all roads within Schoharie county are closed as well.

Road going into Middleburgh, which was virtually entirely under water.

From the top of Vroman's Nose before:

From the top of Vroman's Nose after:

The top of the ramp shows how high the water got. Thankfully, it didn't float away.

The barn, still underwater even after the water receded nearly 20 feet.

All of the crops are gone. Our neighbor lost 1.4 million $$ in damages to his farm.

Our neighbor, across the river. Their house was picked up, carried down the river, and smashed first into a bridge, then into these trees.

Another home across the river.

Propane tanks are gone. The bank caught on fire. Gas leaks are everywhere. MUD is everywhere, several feet thick in some places, including inside peoples' homes. We don't know yet if anyone was killed or is missing. They have been without power since last night, and no one can get in or out.

We do know hundreds of homes have been lost. Within my community, there will not be a single person who wasn't affected by this storm.

The one news reporter that was able to get in called it "utter devastation"

(http://capitalregion.ynn.com/content/top_stories/555294/residents-describe-schoharie-damage-as--utter-devastation-/)

For NYC, the hurricane turned out to be just a nuisance. But for some people.... Irene really could not have been much worse...

(I realize I have taken a short hiatus from blogging. Nate and I took advantage of my generous 2 week long summer break from school and drove to NY. I was offline for 2 whole weeks, and when I got back I never really got in the swing of blogging again. That was over 2 months ago. Oops. Hopefully that hiatus is over.)

Freedom!

2011-06-18T15:10:00.001-06:00

What does this sight mean?

School's out for summer (and by summer I mean, 2 and a half weeks between semesters), and it's time to clean out my backpack.

Which leads us to a series of questions, including;

Where the heck did all those writing utensils come from, and why can I never find a pen? And, am I in 4th grade?

And also a series of answers, including where all the spoons and chapsticks went to.

Happy summer!

Birthday Boy!

2011-06-07T21:22:00.000-06:00

Celebrating in style, at his city league softball game.

Like a little kid in a candy store on TURBO DROP.

Nate told his softball team he turned 21 today. They were a little surprised, but the believed him!

So I won't disclose his real age. But it rhymes with twenty-shmeven.

Happy birthday Nate!

Dear 16-year-old Me...fake tans are better...

2011-05-19T08:10:00.002-06:00

When I was 14, I asked my mom if I could go to the lake for memorial day weekend with my best friend's family. They had a houseboat and a ski boat, water skis, and a giant tube. We were going to have so much fun - I couldn't wait.

My mom said I could go...but if I got even the slightest bit sunburned I was grounded for a month. Summer was coming up, and she was not kidding.

I spent the whole weekend slathering my body with SPF 80, (using up an entire bottle) particularly my right shoulder, because my mom said if my SHOULDER got sunburned I was grounded for 2 months.

I also spent the whole weekend thinking my mom was a crazy lady.

I didn't get sunburned that weekend.

Still, less than 2 years later - when I was 16 - I started having suspicious skin removed from my body...including my right shoulder.

I was lucky enough to have very aware parents who instilled a deep, dark fear of skin cancer in me.

Or maybe it was unlucky, because that fear started when my grandfather died from melanoma when my mom was just 18.

Either way, I knew tanning beds were evil before they were even invented*. I knew the short-term dangers (being grounded) and long-term dangers (dying) of sunburns.

This is why I have a "fake" tan... so don't make fun if it's streaky!

This is also why I have about 10 small scars, 5 medium scars, and 1 really big scar on my body.

This is why I had a big, fresh new scar instead of a necklace for my wedding:

Seriously 16-year-olds... and everyone else.... tans are tempting, but so are drugs and alcohol, and driving too fast.

Don't take your skin lightly, MAKE your skin light(ly). (My new slogan...I just made that up. Can you tell?)

*I didn't really know tanning beds were evil before they were invented... I wasn't even born yet!

Tyson....

2011-05-16T06:34:00.000-06:00

Tyson-

Stop clicking 'Don't like' under all my posts!

I know it's you....

For every 'don't like' I'm going to post an embarrassing picture of you.

Fun fact: Tyson still holds the record in our orthodontist's office for largest mouth.

Eating Humble Pie

2011-05-13T10:34:00.000-06:00

Sooo.... turns out Nate CAN fix anything. Who knew?

We called the dishwasher repairman who said it would be over $300 to fix our dishwasher.

I started researching new dishwashers. ($ expensive)

While Nate took apart the dishwasher. (For free.)

Then we went to the Home Depot and bought a soldering iron. ($8.00)

Then we came home. Nate did some mumbo-jumbo, hocus-pocus with the soldering iron and VIOLA. Within 10 minutes the dishwasher was fixed!

Clean dishes!

Nate said the only way to redeem myself was to make him a Superman picture like I made of my dad. So here you go, babe.... sorry I ever doubted you, Super Nate, dishwasher-fixer extraordinaire!

Mr. Fix-it

2011-05-11T09:51:00.000-06:00

When I was little, like all young girls I thought my dad was Superman. He could fix ANYTHING. From necklaces to tractors, I could come to him with anything that was broken, and he would put it back together, good as new.

As I grew up, I began to see cracks in his armor. My mom asking for months when the dryer was going to be fixed... my high school car ALWAYS needing an oil change... and I realized... he can't fix everything, he just THINKS he can! And there is no way in the world he's ever going to PAY anyone to fix anything that he thinks he can fix himself.

My brother helped me realize where he learned it with his comic about my dad's dad:

(Click to enlarge)

It might be an admirable trait; resilient, tough and manly, self-sufficient, seemingly frugal....

That is, until your dishwasher breaks, and you realize your dad and grandpa aren't the only ones with that trait...

...and instead of calling a dishwasher repairman, who, as a matter of fact, fixes dishwashers for a living, your husband decides to take your dishwasher apart....

... and I just realized that among the tools for taking the dishwasher apart is our fondue fork. Awesome.

You boys might be able to fool little girls, but I'm a grown woman! And I know for a fact neither Nate nor my dad has ever seen the innards of a dishwasher. And no matter how much they discuss the matter over the phone, they still won't know how to fix it.

I hope he gives up soon...the dishes are starting to pile up...

(don't judge. I did the dishes. gosh.)

There's No Place Like Home.... except MEXICO!

2011-05-09T21:49:00.000-06:00

Now you know our secret, and the reason for my one-month hiatus: we went to MEXICO! No, not for a whole month. For a week, actually. On a boat. This one:

I have good news and bad news. The bad news first - we don't have a camera...

The good news - Nate has a phone!

More bad news: Most of our pictures look like this:

Good news: Some look like this:

Just kidding. I got that online when I Googled 'Cabo'. Which is where we went!

The best part of the whole cruise was definitely our purchase of the 'Ultimate Kids Package', aka UKP. This allowed us to get free mocktails, shakes, and sodas, wherever we went! It was awesome. I dedicated a whole collage to the UKP:

That was probably the main reason we each gained about 50 pounds, along with the AMAZING 5-star, 5-course meals every night, and this:

Plates, nay, platters the size of Texas at the 24-hour buffet. Which was surprisingly busy at 2 in the morning.

We thought it was going to be so nice to get away from school. But, like good little professional students, we can never quite get TOTALLY away:

It sure beats studying at a desk, though!

And in case you were wondering.... yes....

That happened. Little lobster.

(Which is something we ATE on the cruise. Yum!)

Also, in case you were wondering, we go to a Jewish school that celebrates Passover, which is TEN DAYS LONG. And that's why we booked a last minute 7-day cruise to Mexico. Thank you Passover!

Since taking things from the curb isn't stealing, we now have a brand new CAR!

2011-04-11T06:08:00.003-06:00

Just kidding....

Holy cow, though. I am very surprised by the amount of experience readers have with garbage picking (which is evidently, by genearl consensus, NOT stealing).

We are now a part of that crowd.

It all started 2 weeks ago, when Nate suggested we buy me some rollerblades. I agreed to this wholeheartedly, because having rollerblades has always been my dream. My parents never let me have them. I suspect that was for one of two reasons:

They didn't want to take me rollerblading or
They didn't want to take me to the emergency room

(Nate has not had to take me to the ER (though there have been a few close calls) but he HAS had to take me rollerblading every day since our purchse.)

We don't have a lot of time during the day, so we've taken up something we like to call MIDNIGHT ROLLERBLADING.

(also, I've incorporated roller blading into other daily activities, like doing the dishes and yardwork. I'm thinking of starting a company called Maids on Skates. Good idea, no? Nate didn't think so....party pooper.) (See exhibit A)

Maids on Skates

Anyway, during one particular midnight rollerblade, we passed a house with a giant box next to their garbage. Nate was uncharacteristicly curious (usually that's my role) and stopped to see their exiting new purchase. It was this:

La-z-boy Patio Furniture

Market value: like, $8000

And right next to the big box...their old patio furniture! Good as new, just sitting there, waiting to be smashed in the garbage truck (or some other adventure as seen on Toy Story 3).

Noooooo!!!!!

Nate and I spent some time looking at the doomed treasure, and then roller-bladed home to ponder the moral issues behind taking things from the curb.

We didn't spend much time pondering. Maybe like five minutes. We ran upstairs, changed all into black (because, if not unethical, it's still taboo, right?) and drove (headlights off) back to the fancy furniture house.

Awkwardly, the furniture didn't fit in our small trunk and I had to sit in the trunk on top of the chairs. Even more awkwardly, we passed our neighbor and his wife (who also happens to be the mission president) who were out on a midnight walk, both going to AND from our house.

In the end, though, it was definitely worth it. We brought our find home, hosed them down (for safety puropses. We may be scavengers, but we are infections-diseases-educated scavegers!) and now we can sit in our backyard! Yay!

I think from now on, we'll make it a point to go midnight rollerblading the each garbage-day eve.

(On a completely unrelated note, it is now after 5:00 am... I am about to go to bed, and Nate is about to wake up. This is the first time of many, I'm afraid, that we'll be passing each other in this fashion. Curses to night shifts and on-calls, and all other medical millieu that keep people up all night, and spouses from sleeping together.)

Answer Yes or No

2011-04-05T23:49:00.004-06:00

Poll: Does taking something from someone's curb before the garbage man gets it constitute stealing?

Answers to this may or may not influence my next blog post....

zzzzzz.....

2011-03-28T23:45:00.005-06:00

Today I actually had to pencil in 'sleep'.

I've never looked forward to ANYTHING as much as I'm looking forward to spring break.

Why do we fry our brains?

2011-03-25T10:19:00.000-06:00

Because frying our eggs makes us feel guilty...

One night I was studying therapeutic art. I decided to use it as a form of stress relief. I couldn't find anything to draw on, though, until I looked in the fridge...

Imagine Nate's surprise the next time he went to use the eggs.... hehehe.

Happy Friday!

The most common phrase (and response) in nursing school...

2011-03-10T20:04:00.006-07:00

Phrase:

"Hey, you look cute today, did you do something different with your hair?"

Response:

"Ummmm....well, I showered....."

I'm not really one to stress about school much - but nursing school is giving me a run for my money. And I have been the recipient of the phrase, and the giver of the response. Dangit.

In other news, we found THIS spider in our HOUSE a few weeks ago. Yuck. I'm pretty sure even Nate was afraid of this one.

Letter to the editor, FIREWORK

2011-02-20T23:21:00.005-07:00

I really like this song by Katy Perry.

(Well, besides the sparks coming out of peoples' chests, which is weird, and makes me uncomfortable.)

I get excited when it comes on the car radio, and sing along (really loudly). There is one line, though, that makes me wonder every single time:

"After the hurricane, comes a rainbow."

Really? Can't she say, thunderstorm, or rainclouds, or something less drastic? Are there even rainbows after hurricanes? Whenever hurricanes are on the news, they don't show any rainbows.

I think if I was involved in a hurricane, I wouldn't be looking at the rainbows. I'd be looking for my car, and wondering how to get a bunch of trees off of my house.

The only thing that confuses me more as I'm driving home is when there's loud honking in radio commercials. WHY IS THAT LEGAL? I about have a heart attack every time.

A Get Well Soon Love Poem, by Cami

2011-02-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Nate,

I love you when you're healthy,

and I love you when you're not.

I love you when you're coughing, sneezing, and spouting out green snot.

I love you when you're puking,

even though it's really noisy.

(sometimes I think they can hear you puking all the way in Boise!)

When you miss the toilet,

and douse the tub instead.

I love you even when you miss the bucket and get the bed.

And so I'll bring you soup,

and tell you you're courageous.

And tuck you in, and kiss your cheek (even though you're probably contagious).

I'll read you your study notes (boring!)

Let you sleep all afternoon,

But most of all, I'll beg and plead with you to hurry, GET WELL SOON!

Love, Cami

:-)

Nate's been really sick for the past three days, and while talking to one of his Dr. teachers today, we were advised to get him tested for meningitis if his fever spiked again (he had viral meningitis when he was a child).

So at 102.8 (F), we hopped in the car and drove over to the hospital. Luckily, when you have a history of meningitis you don't have to wait long in the ER. We were given the royal treatment and escorted right in, to our private room (past other patients on stretchers in the hallway...it was a busy night).

Poor Nate, waiting for the results of the lumbar spinal tap

(to check for meningitis)

Me, studying for my final which I will take in about 3 hours.

(I spend way too much time in the hospital.)

The results came back negative for meningitis, but positive for influenza. Don't worry fellow Touro students, he won't be coming back to school until Tuesday. Also, next year he is DEFINITELY getting his flu shot.

I got it...I didn't get it...

2011-02-17T13:00:00.004-07:00

Unfortunately, Nate didn't get it, and so, he got it.

(If you haven't seen that somewhat annoying PSA, I'm talking about the flu shot, and the flu. I tried to find a video of it online, but couldn't...consider yourself spared.)

I decided my least favorite words of the week are: "Ummm... can you get me a bucket?"

Lucky for Nate, he lives with a (student) nurse, and I've been constantly taking his vitals, listening to his heart, bowels, and lungs, and bringing him dinner in bed...

Running to the store for supplies,

Oh....and fetching the bucket.

ugh.

Bad timing....

2011-02-14T17:57:00.004-07:00

Last week was Nate's block week. If you're not a part of the med world, block week happens once every six weeks, there are no classes and lots of tests, and Nate goes from Sunday afternoon to Sunday morning without seeing the sun. Literally. There aren't even windows at our school, so he doesn't get to see the sun from the inside, either.

(And since we share a car, I have to go to school the same hours he does, which means I don't see the sun either...and I don't do so well without my vitamin D!)

Anyway, his last block test was on Friday. My finals started today. Not the best timing. While Nate gets to take a bit of a breather, I'm still studying away in the dungeon. Yuck.

Luckily, I can study from home better than he can (obviously - as is evidenced by my non-studying blog post) so we got to see the sun and come home today.

Nate's study is directly above mine, and a few minutes ago he started to make quite a raucous up there. So, I went to check it out.

This is what I found:

If I don't get some Valentine's surprise later tonight, I'm going to be awfully skeptical...

What is Happening?

2011-02-11T01:18:00.007-07:00

17 years ago:

My dad is hurrying me out to the car, where my older brother is already waiting. I finish making my lunch (yes, even in first grade I had to make my own lunch), buckle my shoes (I didn't learn to tie my shoes until the second grade....other than lunch-making, I wasn't overly precocious as a child), and run out the front door of the house and into the back door of the car, pigtails flailing behind me.

My dad starts the car, and promptly flips to 89.1...AKA NPR. I listen to the soft voices talking about SUPER boring things, and beg my dad to let us listen to MUSIC on the way to school. He doesn't. He never did.

This continued for years and years....

Today:

(literally)

This morning dad borrowed my car. When he returned it, he left NPR playing on the radio station.

When I started the car later, I listened to NPR for a few seconds, then automatically flipped through all of my pre-set stations.

After hearing what the other stations had to offer, I returned to NPR to listen to their very interesting take on the political current events in Egypt.

How did I get to this point? When did the soft voices talking about SUPER boring things start to take precedence over Taylor Swift and Katie Perry?

WHAT THE!?!?!

?????? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN ????????

In other news, while my dad was here I went to a business dinner with him. One of the gentleman asked me 'what are you up to?' to which I replied, 'oh mostly just school right now.'

The other gentlemen asked, 'Are you in high school?'

(I should have replied, 'Come'on man, I listen to NPR!')

Anyway, I've started a 'high school tally'. This makes twice this month. I'll keep you updated!

Nate and I are chaperoning a youth dance soon - think I'll get asked to dance?

Hairspray!

2011-02-03T10:30:00.000-07:00

Cute little article about cute little Schoharie:

Hairspray!

Might I add, my little brother is casted to be the STAR of this show? Yeah, he's kind of a big deal.

Perpetual Honeymooners

2011-02-01T22:02:00.005-07:00

SO, Nate and I were flying home from Christmas break, lifting our tray-tables and seat-backs, and minding our own business when the guy across from us asked Nate if we were on our honeymoon. I, of course, wanted to say yes.

(I always want to tell people we are on our honeymoon - don't honeymooners make people happy? Make people smile? Yes! Nate thinks this is dishonest, to which I say, 'pish posh'.)

BUT, Nate (AKA, Honest Abe) smiled and said "no".

To which the man replied, "Oh good, you guys look WAY too young to be married!"

(FYI, we had just celebrated the 2 year anniversary of our marriage earlier that week.)

Awwwwkward.

I was content to smile and nod, but Honest Abe over there smiled and said, "Oh, no, we got married a few years ago!"

"mumble mumble" goes the man, followed by a loud "how OLD are you guys?"

(WHICH, by the way, is a VERY rude question. I should know, I just bought this book on Amazon.)

Anyway, the man and Nate continued in awkward conversation about age and marriage while the man's wife and I sat, silent and red-faced, until we landed, collected our belongings, and de-boarded the plane.

Next time we're asked if we're on our honeymoon, I'm saying YES.

(Us in 95 years, still on our honeymoon.)

Frexed!

2011-01-27T22:49:00.002-07:00

A few months ago, my BFF from BYU purged her Facebook account. She kept all her "real" friends, and deleted everyone that would walk by her at campus and not make eye contact.

(She also invented the word 'frex' which means "friend-exing". Much like frenemy. Except not as mean. Frex will be in the dictionary someday. And she will get the credit.)

It sounded really refreshing, but I never got around to it.

Then today I realized that I had 745 friends on Facebook. Now, I realize I'm pretty popular, but there's no way I have 745 friends! (actually, I doubt I have much more than 20 - I just counted...maybe 25)

(Also, I keep reading articles about people's homes getting burglarized because of Facebook. Doesn't sound fun.)

So I decided to go ahead with the frexing.

It was pretty fun. There was a lot of "Who the heck is THAT?!" and "mmmm....yeah, he's definitely getting the frex" and "*this person*: to frex, or not to frex?"

A random sampling of people that got frexed:

The boy in my freshman ward at BYU who, upon meeting me, told me we could never get married because his little sister's name was Cami, and there couldn't be two Cami (last names) in his family.
The girl from my 5th grade class who started hating me when I got to be Annie and she had to be Miss Hannigan in the school play. It was sad for real life, but great for the play!
All of my friends'/sisters'/brothers'/cousins'/etc.s' ex boyfriends/girlfriends/roommates
About 8 BYU single's wards full of people.
Foreign exchange students from more than 10 years ago.
Actually, all foreign exchange students.
Anyone making a rude hand gesture in their picture.

A random sampling of tough calls:

Friends' little siblings
Little siblings' friends
Random relations
Friends' random relatives
People with gorgeous wedding/kids pictures
Ken Jennings

A random sampling of those NOT frexed:

If I look at their blog
If I might ever get a random hankering to text them...and I have their phone number
If I think they might get engaged soon, and I'm saving them to see their wedding pictures
If, when I read their name, they made me smile
Jimmer. Duh.

Luckily, I was video-chatting with my sister at the time, and she helped me make some of the tough calls.

Me: Hey Ariel, are you going to date (old boyfriend) ever again?

Ariel: Probably not. He was shorter than me.

Me: FREXED!

Judging by these pictures, I think I had more fun than she did.

In the end I frexed 413 people, and I'm down to 382. That's still probably too many. But hopefully none of them will rob my house.

Maybe now I can say things like, "We've been at school since 6 this morning, and now it's almost 10!" (like right now......)

But probably not.

*PS* If you are reading this and you are no longer my friend on Facebook, there has been a serious mistake! Add me! Quick!

Forever Young

2011-01-20T20:05:00.002-07:00

Yesterday at the hospital I was observing a patient undergoing a rather invasive procedure. I could tell she was a little skeptical about having me in the room.

We chatted for a bit, and then she asked me to read her what my name badge said.

"It says STUDENT" (me)

"So....are you graduating soon?" (her)

"I have one more year" (me)

"So, how do you like high school?" (her)

EARLIER that day, a random nurse came up to me and said, "you are SO cute, you have such a little baby face". ummmmm.... thanks?

Later that afternoon ANOTHER nurse called me baby faced. What the?? I've never been described as that before, and now twice in one day?

Let's just say next week, I will be wearing a lot more makeup. Babies don't wear makeup. So there.

And here's Nate, RIGHT NOW, being so studious as I blog about:

By the way, whoever said Thursday is the new Friday was NOT in medical/nursing school. It is DEFINITELY still Thursday. In fact, for us, Friday is the new Wednesday, and Saturday is Thursday. No weekends for us. Except Sunday. That's still Sunday.

Happy Thursday!

Hiatus

2011-01-18T12:38:00.003-07:00

I left my computer home and spent two weeks with family, first in the cold rain, then in the warm tropics. It was a technology-free dream Christmas.

But.....

I got out of my blogging regime and now I'm too overwhelmed by my 7000 pictures to know where to start!

So until I can organize my thoughts (and pictures) here is a little preview:

And while you wait anxiously for the forthcoming posts, read this: Why I can't stop reading Mormon housewife blogs

Happy Old Year!

2010-12-31T07:38:00.001-07:00

Cliff notes version of 2010:

And just in case you're a student and you spent most of the year in a secluded study room, here is what else you missed......

Happy New Year!

Two Years

2010-12-26T17:27:00.006-07:00

SOOOO glad I picked this guy!

December 26, 2008

Being newlyweds is (still) awesome.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-25T06:10:00.004-07:00

Five years of Christmases:

December 25, 2006: Nate in OR. Cami in NY. Both at BYU, studying (and dating) hard.
December 25, 2007: Nate in OR. Cami in NY. Nate texts Cami: Merry Christmas. Cami misses Nate. Nate thinks, "I'm in love!"
December 25, 2008: Nate and Cami engaged to be married....the next day!
December 25, 2009: Nate and Cami in NY. First Christmas as married people. Wonderful. Found out 2 days earlier that Nate was accepted to medical school at our number 1 choice. Good day.
December 25, 2010: Nate and Cami both advancing in health professions. Studying always. So happy and merrily married.

Happy, happy day to you and yours.

Where Are You Christmas?

2010-12-18T23:09:00.000-07:00

Something is different about the Christmas season this year.

Maybe it's because I'm STILL in school (and will be until Tuesday evening).
Maybe it's because it's still sunny with temperatures in the 70's outside.
Maybe it's because I'm not going home this year.
Maybe it's because we're going to Hawaii on Christmas Day this year, so our excitement is being shared.
Maybe it's because all of our presents were purchased and wrapped by Halloween.
Maybe it's because for some reason I've been against Christmas music this year.

For whatever reason, something is different.

But there was something that helped put that Christmas feeling in the air....

A Christmas party!

Delicious fondue. Yum.

Awesome friends.

White elephants.

Christmas games.

Fake HD fire, aka, YULE LOG.

Kids upstairs with the babysitters.

Cookie exchange.

So fun.

Merry Christmas!

Lunchtime

2010-12-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

Sometimes Nate's friends' wives (who are also my friends) come to lunch with their husbands at school. I think I might like this more than Nate's friends do. First, because I get to see my friends. Second, because they have really cute kids.

I like to trap them in boxes.

You won't get this in the mail...

2010-12-14T17:18:00.003-07:00

Exclusively on the Barney blog :-)

Oh My Goodness, This Girl Is Adorable

2010-12-11T09:20:00.005-07:00

When I left for college, one of my baby sisters was 6. The other one was 8.

This little cutie is 7.

I think I will always think of my baby sisters as being this girl's age...

toothless, singing, dancing, playing dress-up, and laughing.

Merry Christmas!

We do cool things too!

2010-12-08T10:34:00.002-07:00

Ah! This blog is becoming a slideshow of our days and nights at school.

We are totally B.O.R.I.N.G.

How embarrassing.

But on Sunday we decorated our tree.

Proof that we do cool things:

2 more weeks from TODAY and we will have something to blog about other than our study habits. Yay!

HOW TO AVOID PRESSURE ULCERS AND MUSCLE ATROPHY IN MEDICAL SCHOOL:

2010-12-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

Athletic attire not required.

PPT lectures and notes: required.

Happy Hanukkah!

2010-12-03T18:02:00.004-07:00

Did you know we go to a private Jewish medical school? We get lots of days off that most people don't, like Sukkot, Shavuot, and Passover. Hanukkah, however, is a different story. Ironically the only Jewish holiday most people have heard about really is not THAT huge of a deal.

So, yes, we have school, even on Hanukkah. And we are celebrating in style:

Happy Friday!

I didn't study....

2010-11-30T09:56:00.000-07:00

Our house was hoppin' this Thanksgiving.

We were the hosts of 10 cousins/brother/sister/cousin-nephew.

There was a lot of ping pong. A lot of junk food. A lot of fooseball. A lot of Mario Cart and Smash Brothers. A lot of movies. A lot of games. TOO much football.

There were not a lot of pictures. In fact, this is the only one:

Nate and I had good intentions for studying. We were going to get up early and go to the school before anyone else could distract us.

Yeah, that didn't happen. We didn't study. But we sure had fun!

Now only 22 days until Christmas break!

Kind of a gross day - Adventures in Nursery

2010-11-22T16:38:00.004-07:00

I am becoming a germ-a-phobe. Nate is not happy about this, but I think it cannot be helped in nursing school. We are taught to treat every bodily fluid as if it is infectious; every surface is covered in bacteria; our hands are ALWAYS dirty.

This fact has caused many new rules in our house (hence, Nate's unhappiness). Absolutely NO shoes, ANYWHERE. When you touch anything, you must wash your hands before touching me (that applies specifically to Nate). Bleach the counters and sink after every meal. Bleach the bathroom several times a week. No coughing when others are around. Same with sneezing -leave the room. Travel size bag of tissues in every pocket. And so on.

Serving in the nursery has become somewhat of a germ nightmare for me. I watch the kids sneeze all over the place, drool, cry, spit, cough... bodily fluids flying r

ampant throughout the air.

(*Sidenote* Guess what I do with crying children? I take them into the nursery bathroom and let them wash their hands. They love it! I love it! No more crying, and clean hands! Free tip to all the other nursery leaders out there - you're welcome. :-) )

Anyway, since for some reason wearing a face mask is against some sort of social norm, I have resorted to hand sanitizer during nursery and a shower immediately following. And I can cope.

That is until YESTERDAY.

One normally noisy girl was suspiciously quiet during snack time. At first I was relieved, until a weird look crossed her face. Just as she turned toward another nursery child, I snatched her up and ran her to the trash can. I saved the other nursery child. I did not save myself.

Mushy fruit loops and chunky gold-fish spewed from her mouth and nose onto my clothes. I held her over the trash until a break in vomit, then ran with her to the bathroom, where she continued her germy antics. Poor little girl.

Finally her mom came and relieved me of this duty. I cleaned up as best as I could and headed back to nursery.

Just in time to receive a big juicy sneeze, right in my face from another kid.

Gotta love the nursery. :-)

P.S.... sneeze juices can stay in the air for several minutes after you sneeze them. Food for thought :-)

Do We Look Sad?

2010-11-18T20:34:00.000-07:00

That's because school is hard. :-(

Brrrr... it's cold!

2010-11-15T07:00:00.002-07:00

Here is the upcoming weather forecast for our home:

I know, right? Brrrr!!!!

I'm being honest - when you're used to high 90s, weather like this is hypothermia-inducing! (I should know, I am a student nurse, after all :-) )

So over the weekend I decided to wear a sweater. Problem was, I couldn't find one. I looked all over and coudln't find a single sweater!

I though, "hm, maybe I don't have any?"

Then I remembered I grew up in upstate New York, and then spend 4 years in the mountains of Utah.

Then I wondered why the heck I need a sweater in 70 degree weather, when I used to go jogging at 10 below? (seriously)

Anyway, I couldn't find a sweater. Then, this morning I came across THIS POST and had an AH-HA moment.

I thought I'd never need sweaters in Vegas, so I freezer-bag-sucked them up and put them in boxes with our ski stuff (which we also hopefully won't need).

Watch out sweaters, when I come home, I'm coming after you!

(In other news, I've been at school for 2 hours now, and haven't started studying yet. Shoot.)

We Love Google

2010-11-11T22:24:00.003-07:00

We study. A lot.

In the morning, we both study at school.

At night, I like to study at home, and Nate likes to study at school.

Regardless of whether we're in the same building or not, we don't get to see each other often.

We really wanted to see each other more, so we decided on a simple solution: Google video! We don't have microphones so we can't hear each other, but sometimes all you need is a little look. :-)

(the fact that we can't hear each other is actually a good thing - it limits distractions by making it sort of boring after not too long - and makes sure we don't get in trouble for talking during classes.)

So, this is pretty much all that we see of each other these days.... but at least we get something!

Thank you Google!!!!

In case you were wondering...

2010-11-08T20:36:00.001-07:00

We (sort of) dressed up for Halloween.

Aren't we CUTE? We pretty much look like this every day, minus the sterile cape, surgical mask, and caps.

People were a bit skeptical when I said I was probably going to be a nurse for Halloween. Not a sexy nurse, like my freshman roommate was Halloween of '06. (Yes, it was that memorable.)

Nope, actually an OR nurse. Nate went as a surgeon.

The gloves gave me a false sense of sterile security, and I ate my dinner with my fingers. Nate did too.

We are THAT crazy.

Was there a letter from the GA's stating that every ward had to have a chili dinner competition at their ward trunk-or-treat this year? I think there must have been....

This is scattered. Can you tell we have been at school since 6 this morning? It is now almost 8 pm. I think it's time to go home....

White Coat Ceremony

2010-11-06T17:33:00.001-06:00

So, it appears that no one outside of the medical world has ever heard of a White Coat Ceremony. Allow me to explain:

According to Wiki, the White Coat Ceremony addresses the issue of medical ethics, and praises rising students for their success in the medical field. The students recited the Hippocratic Oath and were robed with the white coat, the garb that physicians have traditionally worn for over 100 years.

It seems kind of silly, but I have to admit, it was actually kind of special. I have never felt so proud of anyone or anything as I did when Nate walked in with his classmates and stood reciting the Oath.

All of a sudden, it hit me - all of the hard work and stress of pre-med, the MCAT, the applications, the supplementaries, the interviews, the worrying, were behind us. We made it to this point, and now it is only a matter of time before Nate is a doctor. The Ceremony made everything seem so real.

Nate's study group.

Nate's parents came for the Ceremony - we loved having them visit!

I'm so proud of Student Doctor Barney!

Movin' on over...

2010-11-01T17:33:00.001-06:00

... to the carpool lane!

Today I got to go to school with Nate. Today, and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next.... for eternity!

Well, for the next 16 months, at least, which is the length of the nursing program is here.

So if you're trying to find us (or allllllllll of our money) we are at Touro!

P.S... I already made 2 friends! I tried to make 4, but only 2 worked out.......

eh, you win some you lose some.

We are PHAST!

2010-10-30T17:33:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago, Nate and I participated in the PHAST triathlon - Run, Bike, Swim, Serve.

It was early - we were tired.

Nate swam

I swam

Nate biked

I biked

Nate ran

I ran

Nate served

I served

We both high-fived

And we finished! (though not together - this is a reenactment)

Nate's goal was 1:45 and he killed it.

He came in at 1:32, 5th place of all the men (maybe 4th, we're not quite sure.)

My goal was to not come in last. My other goal was right around 2 hours.

I ended up 7th of the women, at Nate's original goal of 1:45.

A shout-out to Nate's study buddy Darin for putting this whole thing together.

And also his cute wife Shannon.

Middle Name Madness

2010-10-28T17:31:00.000-06:00

I was not born with a middle name. That fact has caused me much trauma in life. Only those to which parents decided not to bestow a middle name can understand. They know what it's like to be the only kid in the class with only two names. They know what it's like to watch classmates doodles include the coveted middle name. They know what it's like when their friends start deciding they want to be called by their middle names, and know they'll never have the option.

My parents' rationale was that when I married I would be able to keep my maiden name a part of me by moving it up to the middle.

When I was young, I thought that was dumb. After all, who wants 'VanDerwerken' for a middle name!? When I married though, I appreciated it. I was glad I didn't have to completley forsake my maiden name. After all, it had been with me through thick and thin for the past 21 years!

Well. Guess what mom and dad? Your plan was foiled.

Yesterday I tried to officially change my name. (Yes, we have been married for almost two years. But that's another story.....)

I wrote my new name on the line for the lady in charge. She was all like,

"sorry, you can't move your maiden name to your middle name"...

"um...excuse me?"

"Sorry, it's not a legal middle name."

"Well, not YET, that's your job!"

"You can only have a middle name if you were born with it. Yeah, I know people used to do it all the time, but with identity fraud and such it's now illegal. Unfortunately we can't make a legal last name a middle name. We can hyphenate if you want."

(oh yeah...I really want to write out Cami VanDerwerken-Barney wherever I go...NOT!)

And so, as I watched, my chance of ever having a middle name slipped from my fingers, along with my precious maiden name. She wouldn't even put a V. in the middle. Rude.

In other news, we are now Nevada residents. Nate, myself, and our car.

Proof:

If how we treat our car is any indication of the way we will treat our children, I sort of feel bad for them - Three license plates from three states in one year. We are sorry you have to move so much, little car!

Adventures in Nursery

2010-10-27T09:33:00.000-06:00

A few weeks after moving to Las Vegas, Nate and I were called to serve in our church's nursery (18 months through 3-year-olds). Every Sunday we spend two hours 'teaching' the kids so their parents can attend Sunday school classes.

Well, this week those little buggers were so mean! While they were playing with their play-doh we asked everyone what they were going to be for Halloween. We had a spider, Snow White, a pirate, etc.

I asked what they thought I should be for Halloween. Their response? "You're too old!" Ok, rude! I explained to them that I wasn't too old, and then they told me I could be a witch.

Nate asked what he should be. Their response? "SUPERMAN!"

In review:
The kids' mental image of Nate:

Superman

The kids' mental image of me:

Old Witch

*shudder*

Once again... RUDE!

Touches My Heart

2010-10-20T08:44:00.000-06:00

This video made me want to cry a little. So cute. My grandparents are the best.

What I Learned in Corporate Wellness

2010-10-06T07:35:00.001-06:00

I worked for the BYU corporate health promotion program (BYU Wellness) for over 2 years while at BYU.

As you can see, I was able to take something away from my time there:

I obviously didn't learn that you're not supposed to use food as an incentive for exercise and nutritional goals.

I DID learn to incentivize* health challenges, setting individual goals is the most motivating, and that every new challenge needs a good theme (out new theme: Hawaii Bound!)

*I also learned that 'incentivize' is not a word and made a conscious decision to use it anyway.

Nutty Putty Cyclists

2010-10-04T04:30:00.003-06:00

A quick shout-out to the Nutty Putty Cyclists, heading west TODAY!

Eric Maughan, Dan Petersen, and Dan's cousin are riding their bikes from VA beach to San Diego, raising money for the Liz Logelin Foundation.

The Liz Logelin Foundation was established to assist families who find themselves in the heartbreaking, catastrophic situation of having lost a spouse, life-partner, and parent. The Foundation’s goal is to financially assist these families as they deal with the loss of their loved ones, and struggle to move forward

Dan's brother-in-law John was killed in a tragic caving accident last Thanksgiving, and the boys are riding their bikes from ocean to ocean in his memory, raising money, awareness, and support for the Liz Logelin Foundation.

I can't even imagine how hard it is for young widows and widowers. My prayers go out to Emily and her family, and best wishes to Dan and Eric on this noble adventure!

Check out Emily's story, and Nutty Putty Cyclists' cause, blog, and progress at their website:

http://nuttyputtycyclers.com/

In Good Taste

2010-10-02T21:03:00.001-06:00

I've given up on the Disneyland pictures. Maybe someday.....

In the meantime- remember how my family is a farm family? Part of being a farm family is eating meat and potatoes for dinner. Every night. Beans (unless they come from a can and say 'Bush's Baked') belong in other countries. The first time I went to a Mexican restaurant I was in college. Add to that list Thai. And Indian.

Yes, while living at home, my cultural cuisine experience was pretty much limited to tacos and the free samples of Chinese food in the mall.

And so, as you can probably guess, I am a picky eater, who hates beans, and lacks the ability to eat spicy foods.

BUT.... I'm working on it. Being a picky eater is not fun, believe you me.

For the past little while I have been trying to incorporate beans into my diet. I am shocked at how many people are shocked to hear I don't like beans. I am convinced it is a west coast thing to like beans, because I never even really knew about beans while living in New York, except in chili, which I didn't like.

SO FAR it's going well, I think. I've eaten beans THREE TIMES since I've been on this bean kick (it started right after Nate and I got married....about 21 months ago).

My new thing is spicy foods. Nate says all I have to do is eat a lot of spices and then I'll get used to it (like magic!).

Last week I killed two birds with one stone (but not really, that would be mean) and made white bean chili, which was spicy AND had beans. This week I made salsa, and I'm going to eat it every day until I get used to spices.

me and my spicy salsa - 3 jalapeños, people!

(yes, I am sitting on my counter. don't judge)

And, lest you think this blog is too much all about me, here is Nate:

so handsome in his manly scrubs... mmmmm

FYI

2010-10-01T11:44:00.000-06:00

We are having technical difficulties in the Barney home.

I am convinced that some bodies are wired to interfere with the wires of electronics. That's me. And my mom. And her mom. And probably her mom, though she probably wasn't around TOO much technology. Everything with an 'on' button breaks around us. It's genetic.

Anyway, I REALLY want to post our Disneyland pictures, (all 5 of them - neither Nate nor I are photographers, shoot) but I will have to be a little bit more patient.

Plus my parents are here! So I'm not even trying that hard. Plus, it is still Sukkot so I'm double not trying. Jewish holidays are A.W.E.S.O.M.E. when you go to a Jewish school.

PUMPKIN PATCH

2010-09-25T05:13:00.002-06:00

Today is the first day of the PICK-A-PUMPKIN PUMPKIN PATCH!

I never imagined I'd go 5 years without waking up at 4 am to make a cider doughnut. Eh, I guess I don't miss it TOO much... ;-)

Can't you just SMELL the crunchy leaves?

Apparently it's autumn in other places.

I wouldn't know, it's still over 100 degrees here!

It won't be the same anymore anyway, not without this tree:

Poor guy...

Happy first-day-of-pumpkin patch!

Sneak Peek

2010-09-21T07:57:00.002-06:00

Here is a little preview of my next post:

Let's just say, Yom Kippur was a BLAST (pun intended) (and thought of last night while I was trying to fall asleep).

Celebrate!

2010-09-17T08:36:00.002-06:00

Happy Yom Kippur y'all!!

Or happy Mexican Independence day, if that's the way you swing.

And happy birthday to Shannon (tomorrow)!!!

Don't worry, we are celebrating in style... :-)

Round 2 of Gross-ness

2010-09-06T21:54:00.002-06:00

My family is a farm-family. We drink water from our farm well. This means 2 things.

We never get sick.
Our water smells really bad

Nate's family is apparently NOT a farm family. And Nate gets sick. Like, throwing-up-for-no-particular-reason sick. And it's gross.

When I was cleaning up barf last December I remember hoping for at least a few years until I would have to do it again. No such luck.

Poor Nate. His first exams are tomorrow and he spent the whole evening in the bathroom.

(And I spent the whole evening double-bleaching a bathtub that was covered in explosive 'sick'. (Don't ask why the bathtub was where the 'sick' ended up.) Gross-ness.)

Luckily he spent the 8 hours prior to getting sick studying. He's back up in his office now, trying to focus on tomorrow's big tests. And though I'm sorry he's not feeling well, he is NOT allowed to go ANYWHERE without the bucket I gave him after the last 'episode'.

Happy Labor Day! (hopefully yours was at LEAST as awesome as ours! and hopefully yours included a picnic....)

It's That Time of Year

2010-09-03T21:12:00.000-06:00

Last night was the first time I've ever felt that Nate and I are real grown-ups living in a real house (you know...one with couches, stairs, and a TV) and for the first time our house felt like a real home.

The reason?

College football.

It kind of makes sense - real people with real houses watch college football. It seemed like we were the kind of couple that have jobs during the day and come home, eat dinner, and watch football. Real people.

Our house felt like a home.

Of course, the house isn't ours, nor are the stairs, couches, or TV. And we aren't grown ups, and we don't have real jobs, and we will in fact be in school indefinitely.

And I don't even like football.

BUT...our house felt like a home.

Weird.

S - A - T-U-R - D-A-Y... NIGHT!

2010-08-29T00:05:00.000-06:00

(like the song)

SO, what does our house look like on a Saturday night?

Like this:

Ah yes, the charming life of the professional students.

OH, and up-DATE! (from last night)

It was actually Qdoba that has the Touro $5 student special (ANYTHING on the menu and a drink for 5 bucks. awesome). Then we came home and sat outside and smelled the rain. mMmMmMm Las Vegas rain smells good.

It was so much fun that this morning I considered putting my foot under the wheel of the car as Nate drove away, so he would have to take me to the hospital and we could keep spending time together. *sigh*.

And now....back to the books....

Guess where we're going....

2010-08-27T14:25:00.000-06:00

It's still a month away, but it's time to read up on:

Disneyland!

Is it dorky that I check out travel books from the library instead of using the internet?

Especially because travel books are OFFICIALLY the hardest kinds of books to read?

And there are rarely pictures?

Just because I like to know facts about the places we go that no one else does?

So I can sound smart?

yeah, maybe....

IN OTHER NEWS:

Cami doesn't have to cook dinner tonight!!!

BECAUSE:

Nate and Cami are going on a date! First one since med. school started one long month ago. Hellllllo Bajio's $5.00 Touro student special, here we come! Or is it Baja Fresh? can't remember...guess I will find out tonight!

Feeling Accepted.... again

2010-08-19T19:19:00.000-06:00

Remember this post??

Well, there has been a slight change of plans since then.

Like, I decided I don't WANT to go into public health (oh shoot). So I applied to an accelerated BSN program that feeds immediately into an MSN program. And I have been waiting to hear back for a LOOONG time now. Actually, it's been less than 3 weeks, but my back-up plan at UNLV starts Monday and orientation was today!

I've been waiting in the window for the mailman (or woman - they switch off) every day for 2 weeks now. Today was honestly the last straw, I decided, as I tapped my foot impatiently waiting for the mailwoman to leave (she was at the mailbox for nearly 10 minutes!)

FINALLY I saw the overdue envelope which contained, TA DA, another congratulatory letter. Yay!

So I'm on my way here:

(Touro, YES, the same place as Nate!)

To become this:

(a nurse practitioner...if you don't know what that is, you can check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_practitioner)

Yay!

I am a bad friend

2010-08-06T08:43:00.001-06:00

It is true. And here is why:

I have a hard time making friends. I have no idea why, I am such a cool person, who WOULDN'T want to be my friend? So far, too many people, it seems... :-/

Anyway, Nate is aware of my troubles in the new-friend category. And he didn't want me to be lonely in this new land, so he bought me some friends. 4. Here is one:

The rest are hiding. Probably because I made them watch Shark Week with me. Directly leading (I am sure) to one particularly small new friend's death the next morning. :-(

And that is why I am a bad friend.

Ouch

2010-08-04T09:56:00.000-06:00

While still in Provo, Nate hurt his ankle playing basketball. Combine that with the NEED to go grocery shopping that very same night, and this is what you get:

Nate wasn't embarrassed at all.

But I was.

Luckily it was about 1:00 am in the Springville Wal Mart, so we didn't see anyone we knew. Or very many people at all.

You might be wondering, 'Why didn't Cami take Nate home and then go shopping? That was mean of her to make him go when he was so injured."

Well, the answer to that question requires a confession:

Never, in the 2 years that we've been engaged/married has either of us gone grocery shopping alone.

Crazy, I know. It's just one of those things we do together. Like vacations, or church. I've never even considered going grocery shopping alone.

And that's why Nate was there. Broken ankle and all.

First Day

2010-08-03T08:00:00.006-06:00

Lab coat: $25.00

Lap top computer: $1,400.00

New scrubs: $20.00

Tuition: $168,000.00 (and counting)

Learning how to save lives every single day: priceless

I've had 17 first-day-of-schools (I counted this morning during breakfast). Each one of them I've picked out an outfit the night before, woken up that morning super excited, waved goodbye to parents/siblings/roommates/husband and headed off.

This first-day-of-school was different. For the first time, I stayed home, the one being waved to.

It is a weird feeling, one that I suspect mothers feel when sending their children to school for the first time. Kind of like my heart is being squeezed, I have a lump in my throat, and I'm filled with all sorts of worries.

What if he gets lost looking for his classroom?

What if he can't keep up in school?

What if he doesn't LIKE this school?

What if he spills his lunch on his shirt and the other kids make fun of him?
(This is a legitimate concern - it happened to my brother in the 6th grade. It's a good thing we moved 8 months later because he was still being teased.)

What if he doesn't make friends?

and

What do I do now?

I didn't think I was going to cry, but as I stood in the driveway waving goodbye even after I couldn't see the car anymore, I choked up.

I don't really know what to expect from the next 4 years, but I do have a feeling that life will never be the same.

And We're Back!

2010-08-02T09:47:00.000-06:00

Ladies and gentlemen, we have the internet! SO, the long awaited post on the BATCAVE:

Entering the Batcave:

Never before have I had to duck to get ANYWHERE. I can no longer say that.

One of the most interesting features of the Batcave were the exposed pipes. Particularly in the bathroom:

More than once did we burn our hands on the hot water pipe that was strategically placed in the best place to grab when climbing out of the 3-foot tub.

I forgot to get a picture of the light bulbs, but they all looked like this:

Kinda spooky, kinda cool!

My favorite feature was the pantry:

And the inside:

Very clever use of a spooky closed-off staircase, if you ask me!

Another funny part was the stove -small, just like The Studio, only this one was gas, and broken to the point where you needed matches to make it work.

Nate's favorite feature were the outlets:

Turns out 'No Equipment Ground' means 'No Plugs with the Bottom Circle Plug Work'.

We also really enjoyed sharing the twin bed. Actually, I enjoyed it. Nate didn't.

All-in-all the Batcave was pretty awesome.

Except for the smell. There was a super weird smell. My dad thought it smelled like sewage backup. Gross. After a few days of snearching (sniff-searching) we found this little drain thing in the kitchen, and when we covered it up the smell went away. And that was a relief.

The house we are living in right now is a LITTLE different. More on that later....

Backup

2010-07-16T16:30:00.000-06:00

Rewind.

Looking back at my posts I realized our summer is c.o.n.f.u.s.i.n.g.

So! Brief synopsis:

Spring in Provo - move to Vegas - 1 week in Lincoln City - 1 week in Portland - 2 weeks in New York

And now.... 2 weeks in Provo for Nate to work some more. Good job honey.

We called around until we found an empty apartment that we could rent for 2 weeks. Can't wait to write about it. It's my favorite place so far. When we got there late last night there was a flier on the door from the ward addressed to....the Batcave.

Next post: The Batcave.

Touchdown

2010-07-16T01:53:00.001-06:00

How have the last few days been? Let's see...

I took a warm shower on Monday morning, and just took my first one since then. (it is now Thursday night. I did have a cold one during a particularly long layover but that is a different story)

I put on an outfit on Tuesday morning and just changed for the first time. Boy did I miss socks!

I think my last real meal was days ago and my sleep cycles are shot.

Sounds like the past few days were a traveling nightmare, huh? But we had so much fun!

Now we are in our next apartment, sharing a twin bed, and I am staring at a huge crack in the wall that just produced a spider.

Can't wait to write more about this place!

On to the next summer adventure!

In Conclusion...

2010-07-15T14:33:00.001-06:00

In case you want to pick airports for layovers:

Cool airports:
Salt Lake City
Las Vegas
Portland
Albany

Lame airports:
Cleveland
San Francisco
Chicago

Legend:
Cool airports have free wi-fi; lame airports make you pay.

Bumped!

2010-07-14T11:27:00.000-06:00

No seat backs and tray tables for us today! At least Albany airport has free wi-fi. Yeah!

Picture Day

2010-07-07T14:06:00.004-06:00

At the end of the reunion the whole family went around in a circle and said what their favorite part of the whole trip had been. When it got to me, the answer was easy. Picture day!

People looked at me kinda funny. One person said, "That's cause you don't have any kids." Nope. That's not why. It's just because I love picture day! Always have, always will. I also love posing, especially if the picture is candid.

Case in point:

Love that one. And here are some more where more people were actually ready:

Fun in OR

2010-06-30T05:06:00.001-06:00

There are many fun things to do in Oregon.

For example:

The Tillamook Cheese Factory. Free cheese! AND You get to see how it's made. I felt like I was in Mr. Rogers!

The end of the Oregon Trail. They tried to teach me some stuff there. But I already knew it all. Come on, I basically grew up on The Oregon Trail. ( on the computer )

And of course, Nate's parents' first aid kit. Yesterday morning he came out of the sewing room like that and told me I needed to kiss him better. Poor guy! ;-)

Yup, Oregon has been a hoot!

Withdrawal

2010-06-28T21:13:00.002-06:00

Pretty sure this is the longest I've gone without seeing this face in almost a year:

Probably my BFF from BYU.

Sometimes I get sad when I realize my best friend is paid to spend time with me.

Oh well. Whatever it takes!