It's good to have a man around the house...

It's for occasions like these that I realize, it's very convenient to have a 6' 2" man in my life. Just another perk of married life.

Crazy Life.

It's taken a couple of weeks, but the semester is now in full swing. We now know what each class is going to be like, what reading is absolutely ESSENTIAL, and now Chad and I will each have our first test this week. Things are getting a little CRAZY around here.

Chad is working about 32 hours a week and is taking 9 credits on campus. He is taking Chem 105 (4 credit class that is one of the most failed classes at BYU), PdBio 120, and Hist 202.

I am working 20 hours a week, taking 14 credits on campus, and I have clinicals this semester at IMC in Murray. Although 3 of the 8 credits of my Med/Surg class account for clinical, we have to go to the hospital (in Murray) the day before clinical to pre-assess our patient and complete a 4+ hour assignment the day before and then we have clinical from 6:45 a.m.-5:00 p.m. every thursday. Needless to say, it's a time-sucker.

I know the semester will go by fast, it always seems to fly by, but right now in the "trudging along" phase, I just wish it could fly a little faster. It's a good thing we both like a good challenge and thrive off of being busy, or else we'd be in big trouble. There's just no place in the world like BYU. Even though things are crazy busy and can get kind of stressful, there's no place I'd rather be. It's amazing to be going to school in a place where everyone is living the same standards that I choose to live, where swear words are a rarity, where we get to see the prophet during weekly devotional, and Chad and I are not the only young married couple. Although I don't think we would ever want to live here long-term, Provo is the perfect place for us right here and now and we're loving it.

"Life Begins at 75"

Grandpa Myer celebrated his 75th birthday on September 19th and we got to attend his birthday party with a large portion of the Myer side of the family. It's been a long time since I've seen some of these aunts and uncles, plus my parents drove up for the event! It was quite the party. Just look at all 75 of those candles, the 7-layer chocolate cake (Grandpa LOVES chocolate) looks like it could burst into flame at any moment.

Aunts, Uncles, cousins...

He's an entertainer... that's my grandpa!

Mom with 2 of my Friel cousins and new baby Harley. I love these girls, these are my older cousins that I always looked up to growing up.

That's my Chad, volunteering to be in charge of bringing all of the desserts outside. Plus, he looks so gosh darn handsome.

Great Uncle Paul... he's a sucker for baby girls. He's going to be such a good grandpa someday!

Grandpa, Chad, and I.

My cousin Kayla and her son Matthew.

My Dad with all of his brothers and sisters (minus Uncle Mark) and his dad!

Grandpa with his brother who is 81. Don't they look like twinners?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!

While my parents were up visiting, my Dad brought his bike up and we had to take the opportunity to go on an end-of-summer ride. This was the boys "playing bikes" the night before the ride...

We left not-so-bright, but early on Saturday morning (6:30 a.m.) and headed up to one of our favorite places to ride: Timpooneke on the Alpine Loop. It was a beautiful day and the ride was awesome. The only problem was that it had apparently rained the night before because it was THE muddiest ride I have ever been on. At one point, I couldn't even roll downhill anymore because there was so much mud stuck in my tire! Crazy stuff.

After:

These were the bikes after the ride. They don't look anywhere near muddy because we had already picked all of the huge clumps of mud out, but it was caked on there!

Dad with his beloved baby. (I know, it's hard to believe he would let such a beloved possession get so dirty.)

It was an awesome weekend and we were happy that Mom and Dad were able to come up to spend some time with us. We love you Mom and Dad!

OR

My first day of real clinical at IMC was spent in the OR and I loved it. I decided to compile a quick list of all the helpful things I learned today:

1. Wearing comfortable shoes is ESSENTIAL. You're on your feet a lot.


2. Spattering blood all over the place is not an abnormality, especially in orthopedic surgery. Come prepared-wear goggles!


3. If you're a student nurse, prepare to be teased/badgered/set up on dates with sons of surgeons. Did I mention teased?


4. Nothing in clinical practice looks like what you saw on your student nursing videos. There is a huge contrast between the magical land of perfectness that is the NLC and reality.


5. When putting on sterile gloves, DON'T CONTAMINATE THEM, then you will need to do it two more times to get it right and cost the hospital money.


6. Patients that are under general anesthesia are incredibly pleasant people to work with.


7. Try not to drink too much water before you go into surgery because then you will have to pee about an hour in and still have 2-3 hours left to go. Not fun.


8. Orthopedic Surgery is essentially Wood Shop 101 for doctors.


9. When inserting a Foley catheter, it's not nice to spray it on the nurse assisting you with the procedure. You will look incredibly stupid and probably get teased incessantly after everyone else in the OR gets done laughing. Especially after you already sprayed iodine all over the feet of the head nurse. Great.


10. People who work in the OR have the most comfortable work attire ever; by itself, it's reason enough to go into the OR field. Because you're in a cap/mask/goggles all day, nobody would even know if you weren't wearing makeup!

Aloha

Lots of people go on their honeymoon a year and four months later, right? When we got married last May, we were a little busy with school and work, so our honeymoon vacation was pushed to summer of 2009. We've been planning our trip for the last couple of months, and couldn't wait til August came so we could actually go! We spent one whole week in Hawaii and had an absolutely amazing time. Here were a selection of some of our favorite pictures....

When we first arrived in Oahu, we had to drop all of our bags in our little studio apartment and head on down to the beach for a romantic walk... Chad was very excited to be there!

This was a blue bubble we found on our first little walk, the beach was covered with the nasty little things. Apparently if you step on them, it's kind of an unpleasant experience.

When we arrived, our landlady had left us a bag full of freshly picked avocados. They were delicious! We pretty much just cut them open and ate them with a spoon.

On our first morning, Chad wanted to eat breakfast outside, looking at the ocean. That was until the cats started to swarm. They just loved Chad.

Here are just a couple of pictures of the studio apartment where we stayed. It was an awesome little place and we'd stay there again if we ever find ourselves in Laie again. Private lanai sundeck:

Happy Honeymoon!

On Sunday, we headed over to Honolulu to explore Pearl Harbor and check out the local swap meet.

Memorial for those who gave their lives at Pearl Harbor.

Chad was dying to try a coconut with a straw... turns out its not really all that good. We're more accustomed to sugary drink than we thought.

On Sunday, we also went over to the temple in Laie. Even though under construction, it's still a beautiful temple.

Individual shots.

... and then together!

This is Shark's Cove. It's an awesome place for snorkeling.

Turtle.

One of our favorite activities was stopping at the side-of-the-road fruit stands to test out the local fruits. Absolutely delicious.

Star Fruit.

Chad wanted to try all of the local grub. Giovanni's shrimp truck was a must-do. Chad said it was absolutely delicious.

Monday we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center for the day.

Making fish out of leaves!

... they were kissing fish.

We had to get our Polynesian tattoos, they were pretty sweet.

One of the funniest things I've ever seen: Asian man trying to imitate the Samoan. Alright Japan, say it with me now: "Are you ready" in Japanese. Japanese man, "Are you ready in Japanese!"

Time for the luau, Chad had been waiting all day.

Bringing out the pig.

Chad's plate was overflowing, and that's only the first one.

Waimea Bay.

Jumping off the rock, it was awesome.

Matsumoto's Shaved Ice. As good as everyone says it is.

Driving around the island, I loved this house.

Hike to Maunawille Falls. I've never seen so much mud in one place before.

The beginning of our shark adventure, the harbor was so peaceful at 7:00 a.m.

The boat.

The cage.

Sharks!

Dole Pineapple Plantation.

Turtle Sighting!

Hiking with my Uncle Marc, oh yeah, he brought his machette...

... we all took turns clearing the trail.

Hanauma Bay

One of the best mangoes I've ever eaten.

Our last day on the beach.

Saying goodbye to the wonderful beach and Hawaii. Don't worry, both our lei's came back.

Due to some unintended flight drama, we spent quite a bit of time playing Phase 10 in the airport. All sorts of fun.

After a week of relaxation, we had to go back to school, back to reality. We can't wait for our next vacation.