AHHHH!!!!

So funny story: I have been waiting longer than usual for my mission call. My papers went in three weeks ago today, but I still hadn't heard anything and had essentially given up on getting it this week because of conference. But I have a friend who put her papers in last Monday, and found out that her call was issued that Thursday (a few days ago) so I thought to myself, hmm....would I get that lucky? So I emailed my bishop and asked him if he wouldn't mind looking online. Fast forward about two hours, and I walking home from campus. I'm right in the middle of 7th north, smack dab in the center of the crosswalk when I get this text message from my bishop: "It says your mission call was sent on April 1st. You don't think it was an April Fool's prank, do you? just kidding. You should get it soon."

OHHHH MYYY GOSHHHH!!!
MY CALL IS COMING THIS WEEK!!!!!!

and the funny part is, I jumped up and down in the middle of the street for a while because I was so excited, until I realized there were still cars waiting for me to cross the street :)

You could just tattoo it to my face, if you'd like.

I'm a blogging machine recently!! Yes, I know that I have lots of things to do, but for some odd reason blogging sounds a lot more enjoyable than the things I actually have to do. hehe. Just think of this as compensation for the soon to be 18 months of silence. Well, 19. I doubt I'll be doing a lot of blogging in Ghana.

SPEAKING of which, ONE MONTH FROM TODAY I'LL BE IN GHANA!!! Halle-freaking-lujah. I'm so excited. I'm ready to be there. Well, almost. Still have to get some stuff together, prepare my lessons on women's health to teach down there, get some anti-malarial pills, and--you know--pack, but overall, it's coming up fast. I even went and got my vaccines last week! It really stinks that most insurances don't cover vaccines for travel to other countries, because my pocket sure took a hit for only three vaccines. But here's the funny part. I got two injections (Polio and Yellow fever) and then one oral typhoid vaccine because 1) it was a bit cheaper, and I, as you should know, am frugal and 2) it lasts for 5 years as opposed to two years, and I figured, you never know where you'll go. But the key with the typhoid pill is that you have take 4 pills, one every other day with 8-12 oz of water. But you can't miss a single day. If you do, you have to start the whole process all over, beginning with buying new pills, and that's not conducive with my frugality. So to help you remember, the manufacturers have thought of some clever ways to subtly remind you to take your pill.

1. These are fun little stickers that you write on and put one on the fridge and one on the bathroom mirror. They even labeled each one lest you put the fridge one on the mirror.


2. This is my favorite. A reminder bracelet! Remember all those LiveStrong bracelets that were all the rage in say, middle school?! Apparently they still make them! And you may not be able to read it (I have no idea why my hand is so red in this picture) but the bracelet says "Remember Oral Typhoid Vaccine". HOW AWESOME IS THAT?! Really! It's clever, helpful, and most of all very fashionable. I'm tempted to never take it off. The website? www.reminderband.com. I'm going to do this for everything I ever need to remember. Ever. Think about it. You could have a whole to-do list that goes to your elbow, but instead of crossing it off, you'll just take a bracelet off. I like it.

Moving on. Have I mentioned that when Camille and I are in Salt Lake for clinical from Wednesday evening til Thursday afternoon or Friday afternoon we stay at her grandparents house? Well we've done this every week since September so I've grown really close to them. They are marvelous people. So this week, when we were there on Wednesday night, we found these mugs sitting on the table filled with chocolate! (They DO know me well!)

How cute is this?! Camille's mug is pink and says "girls love...SHOES!" with a little shoe instead. And it had a note on it that said "Happy Easter, we love you!" Seriously, how cute is that?!
And don't worry mom, I'm going to find a way to bring this mug back to NY safely so that you can appreciate it too :)

Hurry up you AND you AND you.

So there are three things in my life that need to hurry up.

1. My mission call. As of Sunday, my call had not been issued, which means I'm not going to hear anything this week. Which also means because of conference this weekend, it probably won't be for another 10-14 days. sigh... Don't get me wrong, I love conference. That'll make it all better.
But seriously, I've had this badge for over 2 1/2 years. I'm ready to switch it out for a new one.

2. The end of school needs to get here pronto. And truly, at this point, I'd be okay if just finals got here quicker! But in the next two weeks I need to take two ATI exams (standardized tests predicting how we'll do on the NCLEX), a peds exam, a women's health presentation, an article summary, a women's health quiz, a mock ethics trial, and a psych exam. And that all needs to be done before finals even begin.

3. GLEE!!!! It returns in TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY! It's the one thing getting me through all my problems. okay, not really, but it could! I can't wait to see the new songs and Rachel's new romance and Emma and Will and Finn. Oh man. 14 days 14 days. If I get my mission call that day I may have to open it later ;)

Just hurry it up.

Hare Krishna!

First of all, I just noticed that this will be my 10th post this month. This is monumental! I've never before, in the 23 months I've had my blog, blogged 10 times in one month! Double digits baby. Of course, I did know that this would be one of the craziest months of my life, with a couple extra crazies thrown in there. But still, yay! I can call myself a true blogger now!

Anyhooser, today I got to go to the festival of colors! It's a Indian/Hindu(?) celebration of the beginning of spring. Essentially, there is lots of celebration, dancing, smoking of drugs (just say no), and the highlight....throwing chalk at one another! (powder chalk. I told my friend Colt about throwing chalk at one another and he said, "wouldn't that hurt?!" haha. No no. Not the sidewalk chalk. That would make for a VERY interesting festival). The festival was fun and exciting, and I even had a chance to use my nursing skills when a 15 year old girl was thrown into the air when crowd surfing and they didn't catch her. So I jumped in to take care of her until the ambulance came. That was thrilling. I had somewhat of a deja vu feeling....back injury leading to ambulance leading to hospital.....alas, I digress.

The point is, it was fun. I can't believe that after three years of living in Utah this is the first time I've gone, but hey, now I can cross it off my bucket list. That, and blogging ten times in a month.
Hare Krishna!

It was me, Camille, and her roommate Megan who went

And so it begins....

Remember how white our shirts were in the beginning!?!

:)

You say mission, I say mission.

So I've been getting a lot of questions about the status of my mission papers because of that little "oopsie...." that was discovered last week. So now I must say, yes. My mission papers are in. They've been in since last Wednesday, but that doesn't make a lot of difference because they won't be processed until this week. As for when I'll get my call... not the slightest idea. It's possible that they're delayed because I may be medically flagged (due to my chest pains sophomore year) and/or because of General Conference. It's a well known fact around here that extending mission calls slows down around conference time, and because of the week delay, I'm not sure if my papers are in early enough to miss that. So I guess my call may come as early as next week, or as late as when I'm packing up and leaving my apartment in a month (or possibly later, but I don't want to even THINK about my call coming to an apartment I don't even live at anymore....) Sigh...maybe it's better to truly have no idea when it's coming. Then you have no expectations and will be more surprised when it does come! I'm going with that.

SPEAKING of missions, today is an exciting day for a certain someone....

HAPPY 18 MONTH MARK TO CODY (AND SARAH)!!!
only 6 more months without him Sarah!! :)

Hurry Up Spring...

I'm kind of scared to actually say this, because I know I'm only jinxing it, but today was such a LOVELY Spring day!! What wonderful weather! I have such spring fever. And it made me soooooo happy :) :) :)

it made me actually forget how much I want this semester to end and to finally move. out.

p.s. that picture was taken by my mom in Holland. It still makes me think of spring though :)

I had you going, didn't I? Yeah, me too.

Just kidding about the last post apparently. My mission papers DID NOT go in.

When I asked the stake executive secretary on Monday, he said that he had started to work on them and they would be submitted later that day. But he really didn't work on them until Tuesday late afternoon (cut off for the week is Tuesday at midnight). It was then that he found an error in the medical portion of my papers. Under the TB shot section, there was spot to say if the test was positive or negative and then the number of centimeters that the spot was. My doctor put the test was negative, so I guess he assumed he didn't need to put a number. But he did. And the secretary didn't pick it up until last night, and didn't call me til half an hour ago. And now since I've missed the deadline, I have to wait until next Tuesday to put them in, which means the earliest I'll get my call now is early April.

I'm trying hard to not be too frustrated. Mom says that it is such a freak circumstance, that there HAS to be a reason. Like maybe there is a mission available next week that isn't this week. I'm going with that...

Let the guessing begin...

My mission papers are officially in.


Now, we wait.....

Here we go again....

Don't worry, this is the last one! But today my baby brother turns FIFTEEN! Freak!! Young girls, you have one year to prep yourself for this witty, smart, funny, fun-loving hunk of a brother I have, before he'll take you out on a date ;) Once again, I present a montage of Craig's awesomeness. :D

Craig is a great target :)

I'm taller ;)

Happy 15th Birthday Craig! I love you!!

Update

Well, I've had lots of people asking me how things have been since my lovely accident, so I thought I would give a general update.

Saturday was the day of the accident. The doctor told me that Sunday was going to be the worst day for soreness. He wasn't totally wrong. It wasn't as painful as I thought it would be, but then again, he probably meant that it would hurt if I moved, which I couldn't. haha. So I spent the day resting and reading and watching movies. (Yes, I did skip church, but for some reason sitting through my 4 hours of stake conference meetings in the Smith Fieldhouse bleachers just didn't sound like a smart idea...)

Monday was a pretty good day. I still felt like I had been hit by a train (I kinda was ha) but I was able to walk okay. My neck did start to hurt a bit, and I started to find all these weird bruises and other markings all over my body, but at this point I was only really experiencing pain on my left arm/shoulder (I guess where I collided with the ATV?), a little in my neck, and then right over my kidney, right lower back, and just overall soreness. But here I was thinking I was going to have a speedy recovery. Beep! Incorrect. Try again.

Come Monday night. I laid down to sleep but couldn't because it hurt too bad. It was weird because I had slept pretty well the previous two nights. I tried taking medication, putting my ice packs all over my back, being on my side, being on my back, I even tried the stomach approach (ouch!) but nothing worked. I didn't sleep that night. maybe 15 minutes at a time, but with a couple of hours between each "nap". It was miserable. No more than 45 minutes-hour of sleep.

That made yesterday (Tuesday) pretty miserable. I was hurting more than probably any other day thus far. But too bad nursing has all the classes on one day a week: lovely Tuesday. I had class from 8 am to 8 pm. But I was so tired, and in so much pain that I could only make it through my first two classes before I gave up and went home. I tried to sleep but just ended up relaxing, and doing a little bit of homework. Then came last night to sleep. I got into bed and it was the same as the night before. Way too much pain all over for me to sleep. After 45 minutes, I decided to try something different, so I went to the couch with my pillows, blankets, and ice packs. The moment I laid down the pain was (essentially) gone. It was wonderful!! I slept like a baby for a few hours. I did wake up in pain at some points, but still, far more sleep than the night before.

Today, I'm feeling okay. I'm definitely on the mend. I'm sore, but now it only really hurts when I make transitions. I'm fine when sitting, standing, or walking, but transitioning between that all is very painful. I suppose it's to be expected though. At least I am feeling better and don't need to take painkillers anymore. I'm overall trying to take it a little easier. I'm limiting my activity, especially neck movement (just want to be careful with that fracture). I usually get up at 6 at the latest to get a start on my day, but I'm trying to get more rest than usual so I can heal, so I'm trying to sleep in to 8ish.

I'm healing faster than anyone thought I would, even the doctor. I know that it's not a coincidence. I also know that I was DEFINITELY protected in my accident. I must have been going almost 30 mph down that hill and had I not been able to protect my head from the ATV, I can guarantee you that today I would either be dead, paralyzed, or a vegetable. I have no question about that. I'm just grateful that I was protected for whatever reason, and healing quickly.

Anyway. That's my lengthy, way-too-much-information update. I know you're all wishing I had said "I'm fine" and moved on. Too bad I'm not that way :)

Just a quick shout-out. Thanks to everyone who has been SO supportive and caring over these rough few days. Offering rides, telling me I MUST take it easy, praying for me, thinking of me...And especially those who have brought me food of some kind!!! I got homemade Cafe Rio and banana bread (thanks Alyse!), cinnamon rolls from Shea and Kyle, homemade salsa and tabouli from Aaron, and orange chicken from Camille. I really appreciate everyone for helping, especially those who have just sent me a text to say they're thinking of me, or come over to visit. I love the company :)

So after all this, all I can say again is: DO NOT EVER PLAY CHICKEN WITH AN ATV! You'll regret it. haha