Graduation!

Well, I finally graduated! It only took about 8 years or so. The only picture I have of graduation is the group photo (thanks to those who posted them on facebook. Everyone in my family forgot a camera (thanks guys)! I did borrow a camera from a friend, so I did get some, but I just have to wait till she gets them to me (thanks Angie). So here's this picture. Other than nobody having a camera, the rest of the day wasn't too exciting (except for the neighbor's horse almost dying)

When Drew's away, Kirstin will play!

So Drew left for Maryland a couple of weeks ago and last week I went camping.
We camped in the San Rafael Swell, next to Temple Mountain. Ok right under Temple Mountain.

The sky was always changing. One minute it was snowing, then 5 minutes later it was sunny. Sometimes the sky looked like a picture or cartoon.

My parents' neighbor pulled a big trailer and put our toys inside of it. He did not get to camp till later, so we didn't ride at all on Wednesday. On Thursday we took a short trail, then went up to a mine. Kody and Michael moved a few rocks from in front of the gates, then started digging a hole under it. We squeezed under and went exploring. After 5 minutes in it, we all had a metal taste in our mouths, so we quickly turned around and left. Kelsi and Dan had found another one on the other mountain and it was much cooler, no yucky taste, and so big with several different tunnels.

On Friday we went for our long ride. One of the people camping with us wanted to hike Little Wild Horse Canyon to the Slot Canyon. They always put my father in charge of mapping out the rides, so with the hike in mind, my father planned a trip around with a stop to hike to the Slots. It was such a fun hike, and pretty too. When we got to the Slots, we couldn't hike all the way through because there were huge puddles. All of us had out rinding gear on and didn't want to get it all wet. People were hiking out of the Slots with water marks all the way up pass their knees. We stopped at the puddles and turned around. We went back to out toys, ate lunch, then continued on riding. It was a black diamond trail, hard, but so much fun (with a little scariness)! The lady who wanted to hike and ride all day complained the most. I'm not sure why, since she's the one who always wants my father to plan the ride, but she always complains the most during and afterwards. That night we went to the Goblins. It was fun! What an exhausting day!

On Saturday, before we left, we went for one more short ride. This one was around Temple Mountain and one of my favorite rides. It's so pretty when you get to the wash. We came across this shack and took a big group photo (15 people, 13 vehicles) as well as some family ones (my sister thinks that just because Drew wasn't there my mother decided to take "family" photos). We stopped at the towers and played on those (so scary). On the way back to camp, we stopped at the pictographs. Which, since the last time, several of them have been shot and you can't see them anymore. What a terrible thing to do! It was disappointing! Where there had been like 10-15 different pictographs, there were only 5 left. The canyon wall was filled with them, and now there is only a spot with them left. The ones that were left had been shot pretty bad too, but they are hanging in there. I'm sure by the time I have kids and go there, there won't be anymore left to show them.

It was a fun trip! I just wish Drew was there. I had no service, so on his birthday I had to drive out of the canyon, in the car or on a motorcycle was the only way I could get to where I had service. It was several miles away from camp and then up on a hill. There were a ton of other people on this hill making phone calls. CRAZY! I had about a 5 to 10 minute conversation with him and that was it. I was sad! He would have loved this trip! I Tom Sawyer'd some kids to finish building the fire ring I had started. He would have been proud!

DONE!

I am finished with everything for school! All I have to do now is show up on graduation day. YAY!

So Drew left early on Monday to hang out with me. He wasn't really doing much at work and Chad only wanted him to stay so he'd have someone there that spoke English. Since he didn't feel that was too important he left and we went to the zoo. Around 5 Johnny calls mad at Drew and tells him to take the week off. Drew was not to work on any Acadian job for a week. Since that's what they tell the Mexicans when they want them to go find other jobs, Drew found other jobs.

So Drew decided to go work for the one where he'd make the most money. Unfortunately that was in Maryland. He left Wednesday night. After several delays and difficulties he finally arrived in DC around 1 in the morning (Maryland time). It sounds like he's working hard out there and liking it, but I sure am bored here. I'm missing you!

Teacher Job Fair

So last week I went to a teacher job fair at University of Utah. I can say it was interesting. There were a ton of out of state schools. I interviewed with a school from Houston, Louisiana, Alaska, and a couple of Charter schools. I was only there for a couple of hours and it seemed like forever. By the last person I talked to, I don't even remember what we were saying.

It was kinda discouraging. Almost everyone I talked to about the job fair said that a lot of schools will hire right on the spot, but every school said the same thing, "We're not hiring yet. Go online fill out an application and if you see something open up, quickly click apply for job to get an interview." A long day of nothing. The only thing I found beneficial was talking to the charter schools to see if I agreed with their philosophy.

YEAH!!

One more week of Student teaching and I'm DONE!!!!!

Two more classes (college) and I'm DONE!!!

Graduation on May 1st!!!!

Just wanted to announce that.

Schools out!!!

I am way excited for school to end. for me this means... more laundry days, with Kirstin doing student teaching we didn't have much time in the evenings to do our laundry so we traded and took just Saturday, which for me has been horrible cause I get my clothes dirty way fast and I hate sitting home ALL day Saturday. we want to move from our current place of residence preferably somewhere I can stand up straight in the shower. and more four wheeling yeah!
Kirstin found out she would make about 10k more a year if she taught out of state so she really wants Louisiana, I think it would be awesome there but I would prefer Alaska, there they need teachers in Anchorage and a town called Barrow, iIsuggest you look it up, it is above the Artic Circle how sweet is that. There was also a school in Houston that was worth going to.

Cars: This last little bit has not been to kind on our cars, Kirstin's had a pulley seize which made it think it was a bunny, it had a little bit of a hop as it drove. then mine decided that it will only use high gears in the cold so my top speed on a regular day is 50 mph, so if you get stuck behind me just go around. I promise to stay in the slow lane. Ryan and I tried fixing it, we thought it was from some wires that came lose and melted together on the exhaust, but it wasn't. At least we had a good time doing it.

and that is that

Scare

There wasn't much going on since my last post until Thursday.

Thursday morning I had to drive Drew to work. He had to be at the office at 7. I have to be in Payson between 8:15 and 8:30. As I was going south from Lehi, I noticed if I went home I would only be there for about 5 minutes before I would have to leave, so I thought there was no point in getting off and kept driving. I got to school at 7:45ish and nobody was there. Since my parents house is 8 minutes away and my mother has to make breakfast every morning for my uncle who was staying there, I decided to go up there and mooch some food. My mom came down the stairs and told me that they took my Papa to the hospital in the middle of the night. (He's been fighting cancer for several years, and he has been in Carson City the last few weeks going through treatments). After she told me what had happened I had to leave for school, but she had said that everything was fine, so I didn't think about it again.

Some time between 1 and 2 the secretary at the school came down to my room and said I had a phone call from my mom and it was a family emergency, I needed to call her back immediately. I was a little confused at first, then remembered my Papa being in the hospital. I called my mother and she said that my Papa was sick and my family was leaving as soon as my uncle Micah got to her house. My uncle lives in Ogden, so I knew I had about 2 hours before they left if I decided I could go.

I walked back to the classroom and my teacher stopped her lesson for a minute to ask me what was going on. I told her that my Papa had gone into the hospital last night and they didn't think he would live through the weekend. I had told her that my family was leaving in about 2 hours to go to Carson City and if it was okay that I was gone Friday. She (of course) said yes and I took off.

I had about 2 hours to get to Orem, pack, then get back to my parents house. By the time I got home I realized that my uncle would be passing through Orem. I called him and he said he would meet me at the park 'n' ride. I had 10 minutes to pack and I forgot stuff.

When we got to my parent's house, my grandma had called back and said my Papa was doing better and would be better, but he was depressed. He believed we were going there, cause my uncle Randy hadn't had his birthday and he wanted it. (oh, if you didn't know, my uncle has down syndrome)

My Papa had fallen out of bed and was on pain killers. He was nascious and throwing up from the pain, so my grandma had given him a second dose of pain meds (doctors ok'd). Later that night he was in such bad shape and scaring my grandma she called for an ambulance. When he got to the hospital, they noticed he had cancer and thought he was in pain from that.

The doctors there had told my grandma that he needed to be comfortable in his last days. They asked her how close family lived and if they could get there by the weekend, cause he was in pain and they should euthanize him sooner than later so he wouldn't be in pain. They pumped him full of morphine (which slows down your heart and eventually kills you if you keep it in your system constantly like they were doing to him and at the high doses they were pumping into him).

That's when we got the call to come out. A few hours later, my grandma calls us saying she called my Papa's doctor to tell him what was going on and ask him about it. (My Papa was driving 10 hours to Carson City 2 weeks ago and now he's dying in pain from his cancer?) His doctor said "STOP the pain meds! it can't be the cancer in his bones that's causing him pain. It wouldn't come on that quickly. We need to pin point where the pain is so we can treat it and not sit and wait for him to die, which is what's happening now if they continue to do what they are doing."

My grandma stopped the morphine and the doctors and nurses were mad, thinking my grandma was being mean, making her husband be in pain in his last days. When the drugs finally wore off, my Papa was able to tell my grandma where he was in pain, and when it hurt. It only hurt if you touched his shoulder or hip, or if he moved them. If it were the cancer in his bones (like the hospital thought) then he would be in pain continuously, not just when he did certain things. Then my grandma remembered that he fell on them about a week ago. She ordered x-rays and explained to the hospital what had happened. They finally believed her (a little) and let off on the euthanization.

By the time we showed up he was doing 100% better. The thing that was really wrong with him was . . . he was dehydrated and had no potassium in his system. That's it! The people at the hospital wanted to kill him because they assumed it was the cancer, but he is completely fine in the cancer department. Once they got him re-hydrated and filled with potassium he was back to his normal self.

One thing I learned from this experience is to do your homework before agreeing to anything at the hospital. The doctors there do not know their patients and don't know the WHOLE story and assume the worst. The nurses there just want to make their patients feel comfortable. Example: the nurse came in and asked my Papa how was his pain level on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most pain, 1 being no pain at all. My Papa said a 2. We were all thinking "A two? Awesome!" The nurse then said, lets get you some pain medication. My grandma jumped up and said "NO WAY! GET OUT!" They are crazy there!

Oh my Papa's x-rays came out great, no fractures or broken bones, just very, very badly bruised. So the nurses all know this, yet they still yank him around and twist his hips, which causes more pain than ever for him and he throws up. When he throws up, they don't want to release him, because they think he will get dehydrated again.

He was suppose to be released today, but the mean, fat, bitchy nurse threw him onto his bad and just grabbed his feet and twisted him around. Then he threw up. She's not on at all today or tomorrow, so hopefully he will be going home tomorrow. The doctor already gave him the ok this evening, they just have to wait till a hospital bed gets delivered into his house. That happens tomorrow morning.

Anyways, I know it was a long post and most of you won't read it, but I thought I'd write about the scary excitement we had this weekend.