Unproductive Productivity

Time is an interesting thing.  I would love a little more of it.
At some point on Friday morning I realized the rest of my schedule would look like this:

Get out of clinical at 4pm - 30 min. drive home
5 pm - Double date dinner and Peter Pan
7pm - YSA dance in Couer D'alene
10:30 pm - work
7am - Get off work SLEEP
10 am -baptism
12 pm - going away lunch
2 pm - ski swap
5 pm - Trunk or Treat with Shawsh's family
6 pm - Classmate's Halloween party
10:30 pm - work.....

Obviously I did not do the majority of things on my list for Friday/Saturday, and I'm not going to ward council in the morning, and with how busy things have gotten at work I'm contemplating not going to make a visit after church that I already committed to....and I already backed out of a dinner with Bam's family tonight.  I felt bad on my way to work tonight that I hadn't done anything, and really I only slept until about 3:30 this afternoon, but I'm just exhausted, and if this is what my weekend looks like, you can only imagine my weekdays!  I just want to justify to myself that I am not lazy, I'm just one person.  And although I probably could have done most of those things.....I need to decide what is good, better, and best!

Besides that I missed half of the baptism, including Exodus' talk, because someone failed to mention to the baptizee to bring an extra set of white underwear.  So thanks to my awesomely demon-ish driving skills, I was able to pick up the necessities just in time for the dunking.  It was a great baptism though.  Lots of much worse things could have happened.

I am so looking forward to Nov. 11th.  Veteran's Day. My first day off!!!!

This Is How I'm Feeling Today

Happy happy day, but I should probably try to not be so distracted in class.....

Why Do You Do It?

So we had the stake relief society leadership training meeting tonight.  It was way up north, I'm tired, I have no days off....ever, and I didn't really want to go.  Shame on me.  While I was sitting in the meeting, the stake president said something to the effect of:

"I'm not going to teach you women anything tonight, I just want to get up here to say thank you".  

At first I was frustrated by his comment, I thought, "You drug me all the way up here on a school night so you could tell me thank you?  If I don't learn something from this meeting I'm gonna scream. Why am I putting so much time and effort into this calling?"

Please Don't judge me, I'm just being honest here.  

Then I thought about all the times that I've told people that if you don't learn anything from a talk or a lesson at church that it's your own fault, because the spirit can teach you things that are never said.  Immediately I thought about a conversation I had recently with a friend,

After hearing about about my schedule, this friend asked me why I do so much and put so much time into the church?  And then proceeded to tell me that church is just a time sucker.

I'm sure that I responded with some logic or reasoning to prove she was wrong and actually church gives me more time.......But tonight I realized how wrong I was.  The spirit testified very strongly to me why I do this.  

It's Because It's True!!  

And I have a sincere witness that I know this is the true gospel! I know how to get back to heaven!  I know how to find happiness in life!  

Why that wasn't what I thought at the time, I don't know, but I am so glad that I have now remembered why I do it all.  And I'm so glad that I also learned tonight about opening my heart to the spirit.  

When I attend any meeting with a hard-heart, it will be a waste of time, but if at thee end of the day I have learned nothing, I only have myself to blame.

This is me happy.  

And not just because Shaw-Shawsh let me carpool with her ;)

Fairs are Better than Carnivals

Fairs are great!

Because of mutton busting, of which I have never before witnessed. 

These pictures clearly do not do this sport justice!

I got in a little bull riding action of my own that night

 This toy brings new meaning to the phrase "living in a bubble" 

And you only have to be under 120 pounds to ride!

 Last but certainly  not least, I would like to pay tribute to the wonderful animal who has warmed my head for so many years, of which animal is not a Llama....thank you Katya.

I love you Al Paca.



Hide And Seek

Tonight Bella and Exodus bonded.....while playing hide-and-seek.  Exodus claims he is too big for this game now.  I disagree. 

They definitely didn't win this round.

Shi JieMei

 2 years ago today I came home from my mission.  

I miss it everyday.  

親愛的台灣，我愛你！！

Long Legs

I've often heard that I have long legs, but I never realized to what extent until today. I got volunteered to be the patient today in class while we learned how to position patients for a lower leg x-ray to get the tibia and fibula.  The film size you use for this shot is a 7x17.....but guess whose leg didn't fit on the film?  I guess it was a good learning experience for everyone else, but for me....mainly just an ego boost ;)

Note: these are not my sexy long legs ;)

1st Day Jitters

Thoughts on my first day of clinical:
    I'm glad that I can be easy to get along with
    I'm glad that there are other sarcastic people in the world
    I'm glad that I've been working as an imaging assistant for the last 6 months
    I'm glad that I started at a more "laid back" hospital
    Tomorrow I WILL take an take an x-ray on my own.  The first one is the hardest!

Creeper

So I've been going through the pictures on my phone and realizing that there are stories in those pictures just waiting to be told.  For goodness sakes, yesterday, I drove really far just to pick up a free pizza for my roomie and me and ended up getting sidetracked because I had to take a picture of this to send to Du DiXiong.

If you can't tell (because I know you can't) the sign in the window says "Free Smells"

Which he thinks is funny since I can't smell.

The point is, there are funny stories behind many things.  Which is what this post (and possibly many future ones) is for.  So here's the story:

One night when I was home in the land of Escanaba I was sitting around reading the scriptures with my family. The young, but loveable Beebit was sitting on the couch across from me, likely sitting on top of my feet because no doubt they were cold.  Being in one of my disruptive moods I stared at Beebit from behind my Book of Mormon.  He repeatedly urged me to "stop looking at [him] like that!" but of course that only encouraged me to continue.  Later he took of picture of my creepiness and sent it to me to prove that I looked like something straight out a of a horror film.  Which obviously I did.

I recounted this experience to DeeDee when I returned to Utah, and she decided we should continue to scare him.  What are older sisters for anyway.



I think we could have done a much better job of hiding behind more menacing literature, however, I think it got the point across. Until we received this from him.

The student has become the teacher.  Here's to being a creeper Beebit. 



Conference Weekend

I love conference!!  I wish I had been better prepared for this one, and that I had been able to get more sleep.  I did end up getting kinda sick this weekend, and am still feeling it a little, and with my work schedule.....well, going to bed at 7am when conference is at 9am seems a little futile. But it was good nonetheless.  I learned a lot, and got a lot of answers I wanted, and maybe some I didn't. It was good timing though.  First let me share part of a letter I got from a good friend serving her mission in Vegas.  This is an edited version of what she learned from her president interviews last week:

" He told me once again that I have to love myself where I am at.....and I am too hard on myself....I guess sometimes I get discouraged because when I get on my knees at the end of the night I think- there was one more person we could have talked to, one more person we could have called, a person we could have left a note for.... I just never feel like I am doing enough.....
he gave me a blessing. That I would be happy with where I am at, to see myself as God sees me, and to almost relax. haha I guess I am just a stress bag. I didn't even realize it...but I think a lot of people do that- we all think that we aren't good enough- that we aren't worthy to be where we are. Something i learned from President is that we are not asked to be perfect. We are asked to do what we can and then let the Atonement of Jesus Christ to come into our lives. If we don't do this, then our faithfulness to Jesus Christ is discredited and we become worse off than we would be if we just accepted Christ and let him do the rest....So I am enjoying the journey."

So with that in mind I watched conference.  From President Uchtdorf I learned that I need to simplify my life and cut some things out....like Facebook. He quoted Divinci

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" 

Beautiful huh? From Elder Ballard I also learned to cut out facebook, you know why. President Packer reminded me to stop making excuses - to not fight against the laws of God, and President Monson taught me that I can do it!  (As in get off facebook)  OK that might not be what they all talked about, but that's what I learned.  LA said she was impressed with how much I stayed awake during conference, so I think that's a plus ;)
 Basically, to have faith in God's promises is to take action, and I am responsible for myself, and for my relationship with God, which is most important above all else.  I can have the blessing of the Holy Ghost constant in my life, and I know what things I need to change.  I'm putting my oxygen mask on first!  ;)

Epiphany

    You know those times in your life when you try really hard to focus on others, to do things for people in need and completely outside of yourself? What do you do when your plans to help others is foiled??!?!? I swear I'm trying really hard to develop the charity I need to have for the girls in my ward, to do everything I can to help and serve them, and try to forget my own problems, but I am learning that the Lord sees it differently, and knows what I need more than I do. 

    So X-Ray school is going well. I'm getting good grades on my tests, understanding what is taught, making new friends, and too busy to be breathing.  So this week when I went with the ward to the temple, I went with sincere desires and goals to know how to better fulfill my calling, to better serve these girls. But all I could think about all night was myself.  I kept wondering if I'd really be satisfied doing x-ray, if it was challenging enough for me.  I thought about what areas I might like to cross-train in, and then I kept thinking about how much I missed my teaching calling :( 

    Teaching gospel principles class was the first strictly teaching calling I've ever had.  I never really thought of myself as much of a teacher.  I taught swimming lessons for a long time, but never really loved it. I worked at schools a bit in classrooms and did my undergrad in audiology/speech-language pathology, but never saw myself working as a speech therapist, definitely not in a school.  But teaching this class at church I loved!! I looked forward to my class.  I enjoyed preparing my lessons. I loved studying the subjects. Well, that night it hit me! I might not want to be an elementary school teacher, but I love to teach my peers, and I love to teach subjects I know and am passionate about.  And then I realized the possibilities of this.  I've decided that after I've done x-ray for a couple years, if I don't decide to go on to another modality, I'll become an instructor!  I'll probably even get my masters in x-ray.  Why not? A few of my instructors don't even have bachelors degrees! I really felt at peace in this realization.    Still....I was feeling a little selfish and uneasy about not getting the answers that I came for.

    Then I had a nice talk with Ellen.  She's so good, calling just when I need her.  She reminded me that you can't help anyone else put on their oxygen mask when yours isn't on.  Maybe I was just being told to slow down and get my own life in order (if you saw the house this week you would not be impressed in our orderly skills)  I worked that night after that phone call on organizing my plans, my goals for RS, things I need to accomplish in my calling in the next couple weeks, LISTS, and some cleaning....and homework.  Don't worry, I still attended institute, the ward BBQ, even had some friends over to watch the office, and me and LA went to town fixing up the house tonight so we won't be embarrassed when our conference guests arrive this morning.  But now I really feel like this is all going to be do-able.  I feel at peace with where I'm headed, and now I can get to work! Wish me luck!

We were given our markers, radiation badges, scrubs, and clinical assignments this week!  Look at me I'm legit now!

Yea, yea I know I'm holding up the left marker on my right side, but look!  My initials in.....metal!!

WOOT WOOT!