Thanksgiving Tears...

When my family moved to Virginia back in 2004, we were first befriended by an amazing family, the Petersen's. This family literally lit up my life, and the life of our entire family. They are as good as it gets, in every way. We love them all so much. And now, we support them in their time of great need.

Their only daughter, Emily, has been married for 3 1/2 years to John Jones. They have a daughter, and are currently expecting their second child. They live in Charlottesville Virginia, where John was in his second year of Med School at UVA. For Thanksgiving, they came to Utah to spend time with John's family. However, on Tuesday night, John, along with his brothers went as a group of 11 people into Nutty Putty cave, west of Utah Lake. It was around 9 at night that John got stuck upside down. He hung upside down all Tuesday night and Wednesday while rescue workers tried to get him out. They were almost successful at one point, but the pulley system failed. Early this morning, a little after midnight, no vital signs could be detected, and he was pronounced dead, after hanging upside down for over 27 hours. John was 26.

This loss has been quite a blow. John is such an amazing guy. The type of person that touches peoples lives just by meeting them. Just so happy and so kind. It breaks my heart to think that the world has lost someone like John Edward Jones. I followed this story over the internet and communicating with Emily's brother Dan for hours before John passed away, and I had a lot of thoughts come into my mind. This whole thing is a reminder to me that life is so fragile, and can be so short. It's too short to save things for later. It's too fragile to not love fully. Life isn't fulfilled if you can't serve other people, like John was known for doing, and loving them with everything you have. Our days are numbered, but we determine the quality of our days and of our life in general. It's sad that it takes a heartbreaking tragedy like this to remind me, but I am so grateful that it is never too late to make the most of every day of our lives. It also makes me so grateful to have the knowledge of the gospel. That I know John and Emily and their daughter Elizabeth (Lizzie) and unborn child can all be together someday and for the rest of eternity. What a comfort to know that during times of trials!

So this Thanksgiving, kiss your spouse a little more, hug a friend a little tighter and recommit to love and serve everyone around. Like John. For John.

Please pray for the Jones/Petersen family this holiday season.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_13864973
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34157005/ns/us_news-life/
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=8810404

John Edward Jones
January 21, 1983-November 25, 2009
You will be missed.

I take it back...all of it.

If you read my previous post, I'm sorry if this seems a little contradictory. But wearing essentially the same clothes for 3 days gives me a right to contradict myself.

Dear Delta,
BAD DELTA. VERY BAD. Yes, I did say I had a (mostly) satisfactory flight, but it's very hard to remember the good things about you when I am just surrounded by the bad things. Like how you lost my luggage. And now I have no clothes. Do you realize how hard it is to find something to wear to church when your only options are two prom dresses, a graduation robe and my baptism dress I wore when I was EIGHT?! It's not an easy thing!
As a nurse, we spend a lot of time working on patient teaching. It's called multi-focal planning. Well, I'm going to do some airline teaching right now. So sit down, shut up, and listen.

Lesson #1- telling time. When someone calls you on the phone complaining about their luggage being lost, and you tell them it will arrive "tomorrow night", that usually implies at night, aka after the sun has gone down. When that said someone asks you to clarify what "tomorrow night" means, don't tell them 2 or 3 pm. That would imply afternoon. It's okay. Sometimes reading a clock can be difficult. Maybe that's why both my flights got in 40 minutes early. But also when you say it'll be there tomorrow night, make sure you tell other people, so that it will actually get there at that said time.

Lesson #2- Penmanship. I think, Mr. Delta-man, that you skipped the day in first grade that taught you to tell time and write your letters and numbers. Please note Exhibit A is my baggage information reference number that I type in online to check the status of my bag. Now, this can get a little tricky, but to me, this seems like maybe "A1B0H1U205" or maybe I supposed you could argue that the second to last digit could potentially be an O. Regardless, I would still be very wrong. You see, when I couldn't get this code to work no matter how many different ways I typed it in, and I called you up to check what the code actually was, I was very surprised to learn that it was ALBOH14205. So here's a few pointers. First, LEARN HOW TO WRITE A 4!! Not a U, a 4!! Second, if you are using a 1 and L in the same code, WRITE THEM DIFFERENTLY. Finally, if you are also stupid enough to use an O and 0(zero) in the same code, could you like, draw a line through the zero or something? k. thanks.

Lesson #3- Geography. Now, I don't know where you originally sent my luggage, but I'm quite sure you didn't send it to JFK. So let's start there. John F. Kennedy airport is located in NYC (that would be New York City) which is EAST of Salt Lake. Let's at least send it that direction, k? And when you do end up sending it to JFK (over 24 hours after I myself land in Albany) do not send it directly to Cincinnati Ohio before sending it to Albany. If you leave the state of New York where I live (which by the way, I live in BURNT HILLS, not BRUNTSHILL) then you have gone too far. Personally, I feel that the 25 minute flight from JFK to Albany is much more direct and frankly, much more efficient then sending it to Cincinnati first.

Also, I know you only gave me this message like 12 hours ago when you "located my bag", but I'm getting very tired of this message. Will you please change it to something useful that actually gives me some sort of hope that I can get clean clothes before I go home in a week?

Bag Tag Number:

DL140959

Status:

We have located this bag at New York-Kennedy, NY (JFK) airport and are scheduling it to be on a flight to your final destination.
Please check back again for the delivery date and time of your bag.

So, Mr. Delta-man, I hope that you can understand this letter and that this airline teaching has been effective for you. But please. I'm begging you. Please bring me my luggage. It'd be great to have clean clothes, makeup, medication, shoes, my toothpaste, my scriptures, my assignment due by tomorrow........

A newly faithful Southwest flyer,
Melissa

Kalamazoo Michigan

So, right now I'm in Kalamazoo Michigan. Okay, that's half a lie. I'm in the air over Kalamazoo Michigan. I was boarding the plane in SLC and this girl was handing out cards that just said that ebay was providing free wi-fi for the flight! It was amazing. And I thought to myself, 5 hour flight....I can definitely handle some good ol' wi-fi! Plus they served a good lunch. And I got my own pillow and blanket. And they keep refilling my orange juice (which between you and me is making me have to pee...). I'm thoroughly enjoying this business class adventure, with the only downside being my neighbor. He's a dad who's going on a trip with his son, so his son gets to sit on his lap. He claims his son is "under 2", which is the requirement if they are going to sit on your lap, but I'm pretty sure this kid is starting to grow facial hair. Although he does cry and scream like a kid under 2, so maybe not.
So here's my little plug in. I was (mostly) satisfied with my Delta flight. (Now Delta, can I get a discount on my next flight?)

Anyway, I'm off to do some homework. For my family and friends in NY, see you in a few hours! :)

Can I get a "WOOT WOOT"?!

Just wanted to let you all know that I have a freaking awesome 17 year old brother. Scott got an email today from the BYU track and cross country coach and they are going to fly him out here to Provo the second weekend in December to meet with him and the rest of the team....HOW AWESOME IS THAT!?

Don't worry, when I'm home for thanksgiving (which is VERY SOON!) I'll make him start working on autographs so he can perfect it :)

Also, I just wanted to remind that I am done with classes until December. yesss!
Life is good, friends. Life is good.

Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to let you know I have this much time til I leave for a 9 day Thanksgiving break back in New York!!

ennn geee.

I feel the need to remind that I am a NURSING STUDENT and these are the kinds of things that are exciting to me and blog worthy! No, I'm not a freak. No, I don't need my head examined. But yes, my life is utterly boring except for these brief moments of things that are out of the ordinary.
So yes, it was a...well...an interesting experience today when my friend Hayley and I got to practice putting nasogastric tubes in each other. an NG tube is a tube that goes through your nose, down the back of your throat and into your stomach for feeding, pumping or medication. We've been practicing on mannequins, but at open lab this morning Hayley and I decided to do it on each other so we have a better grasp on how to do it on a patient. I'm 98% sure that we are the only two in our semester of nursing who have done it on an actual person and so let me just give a shout out to other nursing students...DON'T DO IT! It was miserable! Yes, it is easier to place it when the patient can swallow, but WOW it's awful! It's so uncomfortable having some plastic tube going up and irritating your nose before just settling in your thro
at. Your eyes start to water and you gag and ugh. Maybe I'm just a wuss, but now I can definitely empathize with my patients that need an NG tube. Of course, I probably am a total wuss, since it was only a pediatric NG tube, three times smaller than an adult one!

checking it's not coiled in the back of the throat

a proud moment of my life: checking the pH of the gastric content and it's in the right place!
woot woot!

You know, I have no prince charming, so now I have to swoop mannequins off their feet :)

Don't blame me if I kidnap... ;)

So I've have had definitely one of the longest and worst weeks in the history of mankind. Definitely one for the books. It looks like the "week" is going to run into this week too, so you can imagine how nice it was to take a break and go up to visit with Erin and Justin and baby Bennett Wilson on Sunday! Eric and I had a great time visiting with the Wilson family in Logan and getting to show some loving to little Bennett, who is already 5 weeks old! Oh man. Time is flying. Here are some pictures from our day with the Wilson's. Thanks again Justin and Erin! :)

Bennett's tie is probably the cutest thing ever.

pseudo nephew!

I'm definitely Bennett's favorite almost aunt.

I am not baby happy. I am not baby happy.

Beautiful Family, eh?

I could not decide which one of these family pictures I thought was cuter, so I put them both up :)
Erin, let me know what picture you want me to send you. or both.