Back To The Old Grindstone

Well, we are back in Rexburg once again for another semester of school, BUT this is the last time!! Graduation is in three and a half months and we couldn't be more excited. I was pretty depressed having to leave Utah behind to come back to the dreaded, tiny, cold, and windy town of Rexburg, but what was weird about it all was that on the drive up here as I was nearing Rexburg a strange feeling came over me like a warm blanket. It all felt so familiar and......sorta like I was.......home. I was dreading having to move back, but I guess after living here for the past four years its the only home I've had since before I got married.

We took over a couple's lease in the complex next to our old one. Usually taking over a lease is pretty cut and dry and there are no problems, but this time we weren't able to look at the apartment before moving in, and being a different complex evidently there are different rules. Needless to say, I was really upset when we moved in only to find that the couple didn't bother or have the common courtesy to clean the apartment before they moved out. Even if they didn't clean it, it still would have been nice to have had some kind of warning from them saying, "By the way, we didn't clean the apartment for you." I spent the first weekend in our new apartment cleaning it and unloading our boxes trying to put the house back together. I only had one day to get ready for school and take a breather with my honey before the work starts to pile up.

It's nice to be back in a familiar town and to have a semester that Stephen doesn't have to work, and all our expenses are paid for by the government. Hopefully graduation will come quickly and we can take our vacation to Cedar Point for a graduation gift to us!

A Visit Home

A few weeks ago I made a trip to Twin to see my family before I went back to school. I saw the girls a month earlier when they came to visit me in Utah, but I really wanted to see all my nieces and nephews--this is the best part of going home for a visit. The first day I got there I spent a few hours at Trish's house until Mom got home from the store. I went with Trish to pick up Charity from school who had no idea I was going to be there. The boys were playing on the jungle gym showing me all their tricks when the bus pulled up and Charity hopped off. She looked across the street to see that her mom was waiting for her, but then she just lit up when she realized I was there waiting for her too. She ran across the street with her arms wide open to give me a big hug. This is the best part of being the only child living away from home is that when I get to visit, all the kids give me hugs and kisses.

That Devin is a talker I'll tell you what! He had to show me his room and everything in it. Quentin and Charity both colored pictures for me to take back home, and little Peytin is as cute as can be. I got to Mom's house later that night to see the girls living in the basement; they were both excited to show me their new baby sister and jump on the trampoline with me. They were also quoting and singing songs from their new favorite movie "Tangled", they crack me up!

Baby Britney

I even got to babysit for KoLei for a few hours and boy were they hyper, haha they too, had to show me all their new toys and all their tricks on the swing set. This was the most I've ever heard Valarie speak. So I got to see all the grandkids plus have a girls night with all the girls minus Lynnette to work on our wreaths. Even Becky was able and willing to bring her sick pregnant body over to help us all out. This was a high light of my visit because it wouldn't be the same without Becky there, poor thing. I have to say though, my wreath turned out so darn cute!! Although I don't get any credit for making it because Becky did all the work. I also made a chocolate cake from scratch in honor of Becky that turned out quite well if I don't say so myself even though I couldn't use colored frosting.

 I wish I could have stayed a a few extra days, but I had to get back home to get ready to move. I love my family and always look forward to any visits I can make.

Sew Embarrassed

So yesterday Stephen comes home early from work with a bandage around the top of his thigh (like the kind you would wear for a sprained ankle). I just stared at him for a moment confused and then asked what happened. He unraveled the bandage to reveal his ripped pants. He tore his pants a good 8 inches or so from the crotch down his thigh, AHAHAHA!! I just laughed at him; how in the world do you rip your pants at work?! Not only that but they were the pants that I disliked the most of his, but they were his favorite most comfortable pair.

It turns out that he was doing defensive training that day learning how to make arrests, how to take someone down, ground fighting, and various defensive moves if someone were to go for his gun or how to get out of a head lock, etc... So somehow he was trying to defend himself on the ground while someone was on top of him his pants ripped in front of everyone. He was only slightly embarrassed, but took it like a man and continued his training until he finished. This is the second garment he has ripped at work in the past two weeks. Last week he ripped his pocket a good inch on the outside of his suit when he was in court. He got it caught on the banister of the stairs as he was going into the courtroom, haha it's a good thing he knows how to use a needle and thread.

A Little Less Feeling

One thing that I don't ever look forward to is going grocery shopping except when Stephen comes with me, which he usually does. The worst part about it is unloading the car and putting everything away. Now we go through A LOT of milk so I always buy a few gallons when I'm at the store, which ends up being at least once a week.

Now the last time I brought in the milk I heaved both gallons in one hand with the sacks in my other. By the time I got inside and set the milk down the plastic from the milk jugs had dug into my knuckles and I was bleeding.

So the other day I took a trip to the store to grab a few things on my way home from baby sitting. As usual, I bought two gallons of milk and two sacks full of food. This time I decided I would put both gallons of milk in a plastic sack and see if that made it easier to carry inside. So I had the milk and another sack in one hand and the other sack in my other hand. Well, the weight from the milk was so heavy that it was cutting off the circulation to half of my hand. By the time I got inside and set it on the counter my hand was tingling and numb.

It took a good half hour for the feeling to come back to my hand. The next day, though, I discovered that my little pinky finger hadn't fully recovered and was still numb! Three days later there's still no feeling and I fear I have permanently lost half the feeling in my little finger. I am now passing on the job of bringing in the milk to Stephen.

Carnivor's Paradise

Yesterday was my birthday so Stephen and I decided to go to dinner at the Rodizio Grill because we have been wanting to eat there for quite some time. It is a very expensive dinner, but so worth it! Rodizio Grill is a high-end Brazilian steakhouse where they have every cut of meat imaginable from chicken, turkey, pork, and beef but the best part is the grilled pineapple--you can't find pineapple like that anywhere else. The cuts of meat are very high quality melt in your mouth goodness.They have a full soup, salad, and pasta bar plus all the meat you can eat. The servers will go around to your table with huge hunks of meat on a spit and offer you a slice of meat. I couldn't understand what any of them were saying as they told us what kind of meat they had, I just piled all the meat I could fit on my plate. We were there for an hour and a half stuffing our faces full of meat and pineapple until we felt like we would explode. They also have amazing cheese breads and deep fried bananas rolled in sugar and cinnamon YUM!!

Then at the end of our stay some of the servers came to our table and sang Happy Birthday in Portuguese and presented me with a nice thick slice of birthday flan. I don't know if I've ever had flan before, but this flan was amazing! We had such a great time.

 This is the grilled pineapple. SO GOOD!!

 Not sure what he's looking at, but he's enjoying himself.

 This is the first chicken heart I've ever eaten. Not bad.

Stephen is using his tiny tongs to grab his slice of beef as the server cuts it from the spit.

 These are our "I'm so stuffed" looks.

My birthday flan!

I just pulled my birthday cake out of the oven right before we left for dinner so I had to finish frosting it and putting in candles when we got back. It was quite a task since neither of us could move. We couldn't even think of eating any cake or ice cream lol. What a great birthday!!

 Opening my gifts. Thanks Sweetie!!

Spring Snow

WOW!!! we got a lot of snow last night! Normally when it snows this late in the winter it's only a mere two or three inches over night, but I woke up to 12 inches this morning. I babysit for my sister-in-law every week and as I drove the 10 minutes to her house this morning I felt like I was in a giant snow globe that had just been shook up. The streets and landscape of the mountains were just beautiful. I took these photos while I was driving I just couldn't resist. The snow on trees are one of my favorite things about winter.

This last one made me laugh because the weight from the snow on this telephone wire weighed it down so much I thought it was going to skim the top of my car as I drove underneath.

I took Jared, my four year old nephew, outside this morning to play in the snow for a few hours. We had a snow ball fight, made snow angels and a snowman. He was all smiles as he ran around the yard trying to hit me with the snow he scooped up in his cup, but then quickly realized he had a "snow cone" to eat so he'd stop and start eating the snow instead of throw it at me. I actually think I had more fun than he did; its been years since I've had a yard to play in the snow!

What a cutie!!

Ugh, One of My Worst Days Ever

 I have been in pain for the past two years and have been to five different dentists to tell me what was going on with my tooth. A few weeks ago I found out that a root canal I had done 7 years ago hadn't been done correctly and that I had multiple fractures, a cavity, bone loss, and a broken root which were all getting infected with bacteria making my jaw and gums achy and sore. I hated eating because I could only eat on the left side of my mouth, but any sort of pressure on my jaw shot pain into that tooth no matter what.

Yesterday I went to the dentist early in the morning to get one of my molars extracted to put in an implant later on. I was so nervous that I would feel them pulling my tooth that I was sweating and shaking violently gripping the sides of my chair as he proceeded to pull my tooth. Usually they only stick you twice with the numbing needle, but I didn't think they gave me enough because I thought I still had feeling around that tooth so he stuck me four times with the needle just to be sure; so much so that the entire right side of my face was completely numb--I couldn't even blink my right eye.

It lasted for only an hour until all the broken parts of my tooth were taken out and the metal screw was installed in my jaw. I was still shaking pretty bad as I left the office to go home and sleep. Even though I was numb I could feel the pain of the extraction site already, so the dentist insisted that I should get my prescription pain killers right away. I couldn't go to the store with a half numb face to try to talk to someone, so I decided to wait until Stephen got home from work to get my pills because It took all day for the numbness to wear off. I didn't eat anything when I got home even though I was starving. I read my book and took a nap until Stephen walked in the door later that evening. This extraction was 10 times worse than when I got my wisdom teeth taken out. I didn't even need to take pain killers then.

That evening I took a pill for the pain because I couldn't stand it any more and downed a carnation shake so that my stomach wouldn't hurt. About an hour later my stomach started to ache a little so I thought I ought to try to eat something else. Stephen made me mashed potatoes but as soon as I started eating them my stomach felt worse. I ended up throwing up for the rest of the night. Try throwing up with an excruciating aching jaw!!! I camped out on the bathroom floor for a while; this was the first time I've thrown up for over two years--since before I got married. It still hurts to smile or open my mouth, but hopefully the worst is behind me and I can enjoy this Saturday with my husband.