Thanksgiving

I just got home tonight from probably one of the best Thanksgivings ever.  Exodus and I rode with Shawsh's family down to Vancouver, WA to do Thanksgiving with Ellen's family and to be there for Ella's baptism.  Everything went so smoothly.  The drive was safe, the company was great, the dinner was probably one of the best we've ever done, the baptism was beautiful, I got my frozen custard fill, the games were civil, and the cheese cake....was heaven! I didn't get many pictures, but did get quite a few wonderful videos of our Wii playing skills. 

Here's the kids at the baptism

 

Here's the girls

 

And the big girls

This first video is of Ellen and Sonaj attempting a duet A Whole New World.  

As you can see, Ellen had a difficult time with it, so Sonaj covered for her

It's totally worth hearing the last note......

This is my favorite picture of the Fowlers playing Just Dance.

Many happy hours were spent playing this game

 Shawsh and Scooby had a dance off.

These next 2 videos are a couple I took of the dancers.  Scooby makes us all look bad.  Although I think Ella took a close second.

 

You know who is a better dancer than Scooby?  Nana!  She beat us all

 

I had to add this picture because.....it's awesome. 

Someday may I have the eyebrow raising skills I desire so badly!

Countdown

Countdown of days till.....
Thanksgiving break: 3 (2 days of school/clinical)
Christmas break: 19 (6 days of school clinical)

I'm so excited to sleep!!

Thank You Note

Dear BOCA burger,
    Thank you for making me a cheap, quick, delicious meal for only 2 points!!  I love you.
Meg

Someone Else is Tired Too!

This is what clinical history I was given last night for a patient who we did a chest x-ray on.

"Man has heart failure"

Really?  I was gonna laugh if the patient was actually a woman......thank you nurse, for being so thorough.

I Want to go to Priesthood Session

Ok, maybe I don't actually want to go to priesthood session of general conference, there's definitely less "you're doing wonderfully"  said in that meeting than in relief society, but man are the talks good. I loved these quotes from Elder Uchtdorf's talk.

"Pride is the great sin of self-elevation. It is for so many a personal Rameumptom, a holy stand that justifies envy, greed, and vanity. In a sense, pride is the original sin, for before the foundations of this earth, pride felled Lucifer, a son of the morning “who was in authority in the presence of God.” If pride can corrupt one as capable and promising as this, should we not examine our own souls as well?"

- I've often struggled with the concept that people could actually not desire to make it to the Celestial Kingdom, that there are people who wouldn't be comfortable there. However, it does make sense to me that pride would cause Satan to choose as he did, standing in front of Heavenly Father......how many times do I make stupid decisions, just because of pride.....therefore:

"Pride is a deadly cancer. It is a gateway sin that leads to a host of other human weaknesses. In fact, it could be said that every other sin is, in essence, a manifestation of pride."

- Oh sooooooo deep.

"We are servants of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We are not given the priesthood so that we can take our bows and bask in praise. We are here to roll up our sleeves and go to work. We are enlisted in no ordinary task. We are called to prepare the world for the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ."

-This is very meaningful after watching the leadership broadcast tonight hmmmm?

"Some suppose that humility is about beating ourselves up. Humility does not mean convincing ourselves that we are worthless, meaningless, or of little value. Nor does it mean denying or withholding the talents God has given us. We don’t discover humility by thinking less of ourselves; we discover humility by thinking less about ourselves. It comes as we go about our work with an attitude of serving God and our fellowman."

 - Thanks for teaching me HOW to be better.  Forget yourself and love others!

I Like Food

So when I moved up to Spokane last January, I lived with Shawsh for about 8-months.  After getting there we decided together to do weight-watchers.  She had done it before, and knew all the tricks, it was a good thing for me.  We worked out together, and ate good food together, and kept track of our food together.  I lost about 25 lbs. before my birthday! I didn't take any before or after pictures, but maybe I'll find some good comparisons. 

 

I kinda gave up on it over the summer, I was busy with school, work, and a boy (eating out is not conducive to losing weight) and needed a little break.  I'm happy to say that during that time I did not gain!  I maintained really well.  I had learned good habits about portion control, snacking, and eating the right things.  When I moved out, I was afraid I'd fall back into old college habits, since cooking healthy foods for one person is near impossible. However, I am happy to say that in the last 3 weeks I have lost another 5 lbs!  Making me down 30 lbs total!!  My roomies help because we cook meals for each other 3x's a week.  I am buying the good foods, and still trying to stick to my good habits, although I'm not keeping track religiously, and I got a gym membership, and with how poor I am, and how much money it's costing me, you know I'm not gonna waste it!  I think dating Exodus has also helped since we don't eat out much....in fact tonight was the first time we did, and it's probably the reason I'm posting this now.....because all I ate tonight was a blizzard and a corn dog, and by the time I was going to work I couldn't think of anything to take to eat for my break....cuz I felt nasty.  Then since I've been here I've eaten 2 cookies, chicken and rice soup, and a half-sandwich.  Not my best day. In fact, I ran stairs tonight at work to make myself feel better.  But overall, I'm definitely getting there. 

I'm proud of my progress, but I am also trying to not get comfortable yet.  I still have some to lose, and would love to be at my goal size in pants by Christmas, so I can get new clothes.  I've been fighting the urge to get in-between size pants, because I don't want to have something to go back to, but I get comments on the bagginess of my pants daily, and yesterday it came from my department head......so I called mom, and asked if she wanted to give me a half-birthday present (my half-birthday was on Tuesday ) and she said, "Yeah, go to Goodwill and buy yourself a couple of pairs of pants!"  HAHAH  She's great huh?  Actually she made a good point, if I buy pants I don't love at Goodwill for cheap, then I won't want to go back to them as bad, in fact, I can just get rid of them once they're too big and not be out much money. Good mom.  I'm gonna do it.  We'll see how early I wake up after work today if I go shopping ;)

PS. Baskin Robbins gives you a coupon for free ice cream on your half-birthday as well as your real birthday!!  Woot Woot!

Inspirational quote from Shawsh:

"No food will taste as good as being thin feels."

My Happiness Today

I saw this commercial today in the locker room after my swim.....and it made me really happy.  Lots of things make me happy, but this helped today.  And the American woman's accent is phenomenal. The end. 

 

Happy Halloween

I didn't really get into Halloween much this year, mostly because of time, and also because it was on a Sunday, but we did go up to green bluff to get pumpkins, and pumkin donuts, and have fun.  I picked out the best pumpkin ever....and Exodus and I carved it at FHE the week before Halloween.  We went for a sad clown look.  It was pretty awesome.

  Well When I got home from work Sunday morning, sad clown was sitting on our porch and he looked more disgusting than ever because this was crawling out of his eye....

Yea, a nasty slug!!  Sick!  No wonder he was so sad!