New TV

I don't know if you've ever seen a guy try to play nentendo on a tiny tv, but if you do, the comment each time is, "It's so small, I can't even see what I'm doing..." Well, I didn't really believe it was too small until you see the difference. Anne do you remember how big the INSIGNIA we bought was when we had our apartment? Check out the photos. DAN was so excited! It was funny to see him rearranging our living room to make it all fit. It will be nice when we actually have some movies to watch on it. For now I just get to see alot of xbox games. I would like to try rockband on it tho. It's really a Epson Projector, it gets really clear picture when we've got the room in theater mode, it's 1080p. We'll have to bring it to watch family videos at our next family reunion. Does anyone know when that is?

Dan's 26th Birthday!!!

Dan's 26th Birthday was this last friday. Birthdays are hard. What do you plan to have fun? What fun things can we do? I thought it over and we decided to have a picnic and go hiking. Well, the morning went by, Dan woke up and while eating breakfast opened a few of the presents I got him, I laptop board to put his laptop on, pringles, and a sculpture of a man drumming. He thought that was pretty cool. He rushed to school, and I went to visit his mom. She bought him some new shoes.. (I'll post a picture..) So the day went quickly, i made some special baked beans, (Dan's Grandmother's recipe) and we all went to Logan canyon to hike the wind caves and eat. It was dark by the time we got there so we decided to stay and picnic instead of hike. Dan's mom brought other salads she had made, two peach pies and cake... and sandwich stuff. She looked at me and said, "Did you bring the bread?" I shook my head, and told her I talked to Dan's little sis on the phone and she told me not to bring any... Without bread, no sunlight left everyone felt kinda bummed, we didn't really know whether to change our plans and go home to get the rest of our food or just to stay there and only eat salads without sandwiches (the main course). We stayed. we ate all the salads, and the baked beans. To my surprise everyone commented on the beans atleast twice, saying how good they were. It is such an easy recipe, I was glad they loved them.

We ate and had pie, then went to Dan's parents house and had cake and ice cream just an hour later. I felt so stuffed, I could hardly walk. I don't know if I've ever had peach pie before, but it tasted really fresh, and sweet. Dan wanted to work on his car all day, but without the right parts, he couldn't. I got lucky, I had work off and got to hang out with him the whole time. I have to post all the neat pictures, the staircase we found in the canyon was really neat... I wish I could have gotten a better shot of those, Becca you would love them! They are so old, covered in moss and cracked, but still beautiful. Check it out! Now Dan is 26! I wonder what I'll feel like at 26... I'll be 22 soon, and I still feel like I'm 18.

Ps. What are some good anniversary Ideas... Anyone?

CARS, and BOY

I called Anne last night, she told me I had to post a new blog! I'm behind the times I guess. Well Lately my life is just work and home. I took the semester off to decide on my major and figure out how to finish all of the requirements to continue with school. So I put all of my time into my job. It's hard, and challenging. I feel like I'm walking on eggshells with the nurse in charge of my shift... she's definitely an insecure rotten egg... the sad thing is I'm not afraid to stand up to her, but she doesn't really allow me to talk with her about any issues we have with her.. ug.

A few ladies have passed away since I've started, I miss having them around, but they better be happier where they are now then where they were!

Ok, So I've realised I don't really talk about Dan much. I thought I would make a blog describing his likes, and so forth so you guys that live far can get to know him better (considering the fact that I live with him, and will become more like him someday).

Dan works at Paragon Medical, as a machinist. He helps makes medical devices for all of the hospitals in the world. LOL; He likes the outdoors alot; I remember when I first started dating him, his mom asked me if I liked camping. She said "good" when I said yes because Dan's family goes camping every year for thanksgiving. Dan's favorite part about that event is the pie. Everyone in the family makes and brings tons of pies, atleast 3 pies for each person. Dan will eat as much pie as he can get his hands on! Pie for dinner, breakfast, lunch, you name it.

Dan loves cars. He thinks about them, dreams about them, drives them, washes them, talks to them, names them... now i'm even dreaming about them. He takes any chance he can to explain parts in the car and how they work whenever we are together for long car rides or eating a meal. I laugh when he says, "do you hear that sound that car making? what do you think is wrong with it?" What's even weirder is that I'm actually learning enough to answer him. I like learning about it, but I don't like spending all day working on cars. Dan just got rid of his yellow charger and bought a much cheaper Subaru wrx. It's bright blue and he's doing everything he can to up it's performance. So far he's gotten on ebay about every night for the passed 3 months for parts, and has gotten : A new turbo, intercooler, breaks, up pipe, down pipe system, catback exhaust, shocks (two way adjustable coil overs), fuel pump (250cc), fuel injectors (750cc), boost control solenoid, cold air intake and tons of other gadgets to get the car to run faster and better and faster and better. For his birthday this Sept I bought him new wheels, (no kids, I guess we can spend money on hobbies :) he wants to paint little tiny parts of the car pink... that's funny, he painted his break calipers pink... (check it online if you wonder what I mean.. I posted a picture of ones that are blue, picture in your mind HOT PINK.)

Dan also is a major tease, but only when he knows you pretty well. He likes to observe situations before becoming apart of it. He loves joking with his younger brother Joel, and takes pride in the relationship he has with him. He calls his mom "UHH" and she answers to it. (I guess that's mom in Guarani.. a language from his mission to Paraguay...or it's just his way of ) He doesn't really ever want a dog (they chew his things up including his $120 calculator last semester..just 2 days before his calculus final), but he wouldn't mind having a friendly cat to cuddle with. He likes audiobooks, and we have taken to renting every one we can find at the Library. We have almost the whole Wheel of Time Series, (except for Path of Daggers) if anyone knows where I can find it, let me know!

well...Maybe if you have questions you want to ask, I can post more. I don't really know what you would want to know.

PS. I've got a lot of time on my hands, and I'm wondering if any of you have some advice on hobbies I could do, or projects that are fun. If you have anything that you do that is exciting to you, or things you see on the internet, let me know! thanks!

Daniel has 2 younger sisters and 2 younger brothers. His youngest brother is 18 years old, and had some trouble with the law this last couple of years. He never really got along with his family, and for an escape ran off with friends that he thought he fit in with. His friends got him into a lot of trouble and he started doing things that were making him more and more unhappy. I met Daniel and his family when things were the worst for Kyle. I tried to talk with him, and be his friend. He was nice to me, and tried to talk to me everytime I would go to Dan's house. I felt like I could connect with him, and his family tried harder to get him involved in family time. He started to see that his friends were not good for him, and started to do a little better.. for a while. Most of his family had given up on him, and couldn't really talk with him without getting frustrated. His outlook on life was dark, and depressing. It made it hard.
Last year around May the police came over to Dan's house and searched kyle's room. Kyle's brother Joel shared rooms with him, he came home to his room torn apart and the place ripped up. Later he learned that the police had taken Kyle out of school and into custody. The few weeks were scary for kyle. He got home, and had to go to court with his parents. Kyle had gotten into some bad sites of the internet, along with getting caught with drugs by school property. He was sentenced to over a year in a juvenile detention center. Kyle missed our wedding, His friend Barbara came from Germany to visit, he was still in the center... He has been in since last May, and Now on July 2nd he gets to come home.
His parents are excited, and They allowed a few of us to go visit him last week. He has grown up alot, he seems more mature, less centered on his own well-being. he cares about others more. I'm excited to see how he will change the dynamics in Dan's parents house. I hope he does well, and changes his life around. WELCOME HOME KYLE.
This July 4th is a big event for Daniel's family. Everyone gets together and goes to the parades and watches fireworks... the last event Dan and I went together, I loved being with him and his family. I was pretty bummed all week because I didn't ask to have the 4th off. I got a phone call last night, a girl asked if she could work my July 4th! I was so excited. I remember asking heavenly father if I could find a way to let it work out, if I had to work, then I would try to make it to Brigham City and see the family at about 11pm... after everything was over. I'm just excited that I can go!
I called Laura today, she told me she was going to be in town of the 6th of July. I'm excited, I get to see her new baby and Damian! I love her family... I wish I could take more time to go to SLC and visit her! Sounds like things are going good though. Glad she's doing well.

Laura, you kicked me off! I can't view your blog now... Not invited I guess. Can you fix that?

This week has been a long one. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling a little like I want to be a kid again. I want to play all day and go home and ask my mom whats for dinner instead of going home trying to make dinner. I guess I've been thinking about past times with family and friends and really being reminded of life and the joys that I had.

I get these thoughts, random shadows of memories.. today I remembered that I had my hair cut short when I was a Junior in highschool because I wanted to donate it to locks of love, and I haven't really had it long until now. It's getting passed my shoulders and that's a biggie for me.

I remembered that Anne and I stayed at Kirsten's house in Bozeman one summer, before we met Saba and Emily, and we didn't really know anyone. We met this one girl, she was naughty. Anne and I played with her for about a week, I remember we hid another girls shoe up in the house rafters, and the little girl's dad came out looking for it. I remember sticking around so I could tell him where we hid it because I wasn't able to stick up for the girl when we stole the shoe in the first place. (Hazy memory... do you remember that Anne?)

I think about highschool memories and wonder where life has gone. What is happening with the time we are given? I know it doesn't seem like much to you, but I've been married for 9 months tomorrow. Kirsten, over 10 years! Becca, over 7 right? Even Anne, you've been married for 2 years right? I just can't believe how time flies, how I want it to slow down because at times I enjoy it too much, and even when I don't enjoy it, I just want to to stop so I can rest and take a few breaths.

I love all of you, I love looking at your blogs and wondering how your lives are going. I think about everyone often... I have dreams about you, (my family) my mind continues to think of Ben and Nathaniel, because I don't hear much of them. Hope your all doing well.

I am now officially a member of the "Certified Nursing Assistants" at Sunshine Terrace. I was in their housekeeping department for over a year and decided I wanted to move on to a different department with more pay and more responsibility. I'm finishing my final testing this week, and do the state test at the end of the month. Then my pay goes up about $2 or so. That will be good. I'm excited to start this new job.

For those of you that want to know what it's like:

2pm I go to work, make rounds (visit each of the residents rooms and see if they need to use the restroom or have to have a diaper changed).

3pm Answer call lights and little favors needed done

4pm Get people up for dinner until 5:30

6pm Help feed dinner to those who can't feed themselves. make conversation with those that need a distraction from a boring life. :)

7pm dinner is still going... takes a while

8pm get everyone ready for bed, brush teeth and tuck them in.

9-11pm answer final call lights before going home and getting to sit down for a few minutes.

It's interesting being able to see so many that that can't do things for themselves. Those things we take for granted like brushing our teeth, getting out of bed, or going to the bathroom. it's surprising the smiles that you can put on someone's face when you encourage them to take 20 small steps through the hall before them have sit and rest. I think of getting old and what I can do to keep my mind in the present instead of the past. Often it's someone's birthday, and you ask, "How old are you Mildred?" and she says 10 years old, and you have to smile and say, "wow, your growing up." then you ask the other nurses how old she is and laugh when she's 105 years old. I hope that I can be a friendly person to be around, one who says thankyou and keeps a smile on even when life is going down hill. So many show me a good example and I want to learn from them that I serve. I really am glad to experience this kind of job. I enjoy it so far, Even those stinky diapers and giving showers is not so bad when you get to experience so many other good things. Lis