DAVIS DAYS

Robin Stevens Davis April 18, 1976 - November 30, 2011

2011-12-02T09:19:00.005-07:00

To those who follow Robin's blog, I am saddened to report her passing on November 30,2011 in Gainesville, Florida. She was waiting for another lung transplant, and her health decreased markedly over the month of November. She has not been feeling well for the past year and has not posted many thoughts during the year, but that does not mean that she did not have you in her thoughts and delight in browsing the blogs of her loved ones.

I delight in the time that Almighty gave to us on this side of the veil and yearn for the time that I can be reunited with my eternal companion. We have seen many miracles during our short time on earth and again thank the Almighty for His Mercy.

If you want to add any comments, stories, or photos about Robin's life you can visit the following link:

http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Robin-Davis&lc=2317&pid=154844432&mid=4906198&locale=en-US

Thank you,

Don Davis

What's what

2011-06-21T11:42:00.002-06:00

Unfortunately, not a whole lot has changed since I last wrote. My mother is living with us still and will stay in Florida until I am transplanted. Monday we got word that Ashley has been approved as a kidney donor and just waiting now for the final word from the Lung Transplant Team that I am officially on the transplant waiting list. Once on the list, they predict about a two month wait.

Several have asked about my condition. I am pleased to say that I am doing and feeling very well for my lung capacity. I am at a good weight, breathing relatively comfortable, I am able to attend church and hold a calling in the Young Womens as a teacher. I can do light cleaning and cooking. We have a gym in the complex that I use, not enough, but I do use it regularly.

I have been very blessed. My lung capacity is still comprable to last time but my ability to perform is night and day different. Last time I went into transplant with a feeding tube and was basically bed ridden by the time we transplanted me. I know I have many of your prayers and blessings that have been answered to thank for this miracle.

Drama

2011-03-03T04:55:00.002-07:00

I think my family should just become the latest soap. Not because we are particularly interesting, but then again neither are the soaps, but because we just move from drama to drama. I don't know if that is how ya' ll feel about your own families but it does keep life in constant motion.

Our family is still dealing with the Egypt issues. My parents got home to Springfield, Illinois only after being stuck in Chicago for two days because of weather and then their plane slid off the runway in Springfield and they were stuck in a snow drift for hours. They eventually got the passengers off the plane but they couldn't get to the luggage compartment until the following day. We just had to laugh. Can you believe after all that, they are trying to get clearance to get back into Egypt! It is a crazy world we live in.

They say timing is everything and our family can attest for that. I have been toying with the idea of getting another lung transplant for some time. As you all know, I have been in rejection for many years, at least six, and have noticed more decline over the last several months. We have met with the surgeon and last week got the "green light" as far as being a good candidate for re-transplant. The catch is that I also need a kidney transplant. The anti-rejection drugs are very hard on the kidneys and they know I will be hit hard with these drugs just after the lung transplant. They are certain the kidneys will poop out shortly after surgery.

The plan is to do the lung transplant first and then the kidney transplant after my old ones poop out. (That way I will be damaging the bad ones and not the new kidney when the anti-rejection drugs are so strong.) The kidney transplant could take place a month after surgery or a year after but we will be ready for whenever. I will not get on the official lung transplant waiting list until we have my kidney donor lined up and all of the testing on me and them done. Once I get on the lung transplant list, they expect it to take just a few months to be transplanted. It will go relatively quick.

In the meantime, my mother has flown down to Florida to be worked up as a donor and also help take care of me. It has been such a blessing that she had to come home early and kind of nice that Egypt is not ready for her either.

up-date

2011-01-31T18:19:00.002-07:00

They did get out of Egypt and are currently in Athens. They are headed for Springfield in the morning and weather pending, they will be home tomorrow evening!

Egypt

2011-01-31T09:40:00.005-07:00

Many have asked and this is the easiest way I know to get the word out quickly. As many already know, my mother and stepfather moved to a city just outside of Cairo, Egypt for a job assignment last September. They have completely enjoyed the time they have had in Egypt but this weeks explosion of political fire has really made more of an impact than ever anticipated.

They have been receiving texts with instructions from the US Embassy all week. We were first told that the riots were far from them and life was as usual but as the week has progressed so has the riots and violence. The riots now are just below them on the streets and they are confined to their apartment. Mom said they haven't slept well for several days because of the noise from outside. Because they are fearful of looters who might attempt to enter the high rise, they have taken to the streets in shifts patrolling with rocks and such to protect their homes and families.

As you know, the Embassy has advised all Americans now to flee the country with their help. They were told to pack one bag per person, no more than 45 lbs, and be ready first thing in the morning. They did not know as of last night, where they were going (home to Illinois or just to another country that is safe) or how they would get there. We are assuming we will get another call today or tomorrow when they are safely out of the country. (We have limited communication with them as their only cell phone that works has limited minutes.)

They are in good spirits and doing well but would love for you to please keep them in your prayers. Thanks for all your support!

saving lives

2011-01-28T11:11:00.002-07:00

Don has been putting in a lot of call time this past month. Treating poor souls who get lye sprayed in their eyes, nail guns poking out of another, and others with just plain nasty diseases that overtake the eye. He is in his own heaven treating the wounded and good on him.

On that note, I want the world to know, that Don is not the only one in this house that saves lives. Today I was a hero. (My Mother-in law said so.) Today I sitting at my table with the laptop and saw something move out of the corner of my eye. About 3 feet away, staring up at me, another stinking lizard! This one was pretty good sized too. I honestly had the wind sucked out of me for several seconds, I couldn't even get out the word "Sally Ann"!

When I finally came to my senses, I grabbed my phone and took a picture of the beast. (thinking people know when you text a picture, you mean business, right?) Then, I texted the lizard along with a message pleading for advice to about 5 family members. Naturally, people started texting advice pronto and with everyone's input, I came up with a solution.

Don: suggested I walk slowly towards the lizard and find out where he goes (hoping to find how he got in and get him back out)

Tom (Don's brother): chase it!

Gail (Don's mother): get the broom and sweep at it to the slider door. Of course, open the door in advance.

Ashley (my sister): yell at it and repeat Sally Ann a lot.

Julie (my sister): get out my roomba and have a sweep off.

So I eliminated Julie and Tom's advice. I already yelled out of panic twice before Ashley mentioned it and no effect on the little beast. I decided to open the front door and get the broom like Gail said but didn't think it would work. They are way too fast. I didn't think it would allow me to get very close like Don suggested because again too fast and don't really care for people. However, this guy must have been pretty weak. He let me push him with the broom, well, until he jumped up on it. I just talked to him and told him he couldn't stay any longer and had to go. I pushed him out the door and onto the welcome mat and quickly shut the door.

I kept envisioning me opening that door three days from now and finding him belly up on my mat. Good news though, I have opened the door, he is off the mat and only God knows where he is now and may God keep it that way!

Buyer Beware

2011-01-13T15:07:00.002-07:00

Today I have been thumbing thru old bank records and kicking myself for not paying closer attention. Let me back up to last Friday. Friday, in our mail we had new debit cards issued to us from our old bank in Salt Lake. We were under the impression that account had been closed so I called Monday morning to find out what I needed to do to close the account. The guy on the other end asks me if I know we are on the overdraft? Panic sets in as I look at our account online and see that someone by the name of BBV hot movie sale has been withdrawing $19.95 from our account without our approval and has been for four months! I call these jokers three times before I figure out who they are and how they got my bank information. Somehow they had my mothers name and address tied to my bank account. My mother doesn't even live in the states. They insisted that my mother must have stolen my card and made the illegal purchase.

On the third phone call, after they hung up on me, the broken english lady tells me that the purchase was originally for a movie called My Sister Eileen. I purchased that movie online for my mother in October 2009 as a birthday present. I had it mailed to her house. Apparently, I clicked, at that time, that I would be interested in their "special promotions". When I asked the Cuban on the other end what that entailed, she read me the statement from the internet. It claims that they will introduce you to their products but never mentions a fee or subscription and I have yet to see any product but the movie that I ordered. Now remember, I bought this movie about a year prior to them billing me $19.95.

I have googled this company online and found hundreds of complaints from people just like me. I have reported them to the FBI and the BBB and of course my bank. These jokers have re-emburssed me $60 but today as I went thru my account with a fine tooth comb realized they have been taking $9.95 out every month for ten months and then upped it to the $19.95! In all, I have been scammed about $200.

Sadly, I have nobody to blame for this but myself for not paying closer attention to my bank accounts. May you learn from my mistakes: don't do business with jokers and balance your checkbook monthly.

Sally Ann Lives On..

2011-01-06T11:00:00.003-07:00

You might remember a blog this summer about my friendly neighborhood pet lizard I so affectionately named Sally Ann. As helpful, I'm sure, as she was in eliminating those unwanted spiders and such found only under my fridge and stove, she did go to the way of the world, so to speak. As strange as it sounds, I kind of wanted her back to clean my floors. I really don't like to scrub floors or vacuum. My sister, Ashley, bless her, gave me her old Roomba and I love it! I decided to name her Sally Ann in memory of our late lizard and for the poor girl that let Don get away.

I have to tell you that I am mesmerized by this sweeper. I have to watch her every move. I don't know why, I just am. Anyway, the other day I was home alone and actually talking to Sally Ann out loud about spots that she had missed or telling her not to go over there again, when it occurred to me that I sound like a slave driver! I move to the South and now look at me!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-28T11:39:00.006-07:00

"Let it Snow" with sand and shells inside

As much as we are enjoying ourselves here in Florida, we do miss our seasons. I never realized how much seasons set the tone and mood for the holidays for me. Don and I talked about it and decided either we could go to the beach for Christmas or we could head home to winter. It didn't take too much to coax us to head for Illinois.

Ashley's family is currently living in Mom and Dave's house and remodeling while they are looking to build a new home. (They sold their house this fall.) So as funny as it sounds, I went to my old house for the holidays without any parents. Kind of strange.

We had a fun week with the Drowns clan though. We did lots of shopping, eating, playing games, watching old family videos, more shopping, and of course wrapping. Here are just a couple of Christmas pictures of our house this year as well as Christmas in Illinois.

These stockings Grandma Williams made for us last Christmas. We have a nice tree skirt that matches. Love them!

Mom brought us back real gold, frankincense and myrrh from Egypt as well as these hand crafted lamps. The bells I got in Washington on a trip but thought they looked nice here.

Our Nativity.

"Davis"

Our small three trees.

Our 2010 tree with lights and "Davis" sign in back.

Christmas Eve Dinner. We had a leg of lamb, potatoes, asparagus, and sweet rolls...Yummy!!

Haley got her much wished for cell phone!

Don picked out Parkers mitt and then to help shape the mitt he suggested they wrap it with three balls inside the mitt. They decided to sign the balls with famous ball players just to be funny. Of course the third and most important player who signed was yours truly, "Don Kent Davis, Jr."

Addison got his stuffed animal/pillow. Rodney (the dog) thanks Santa for a replacement. FYI: Poor Addison found out this year on Christmas day that Santa is his parents. Breaks your little heart. He was a trooper though.

Kinley, loving her new toy that makes lots of noises.

We gave the Drowns Family Ticket to Ride Europe this year. I think they have played every day at least once ever since.

Dave also got a really nice spice rack but opened it early to make dinner on Christmas Eve.

I realize now that we didn't take any pictures of us really for Christmas. We did get presents, mostly clothes, but I guess we were busy unwrapping and not picture taking.

5th Wedding Anniversary got rained out

2010-12-23T13:10:00.001-07:00

Sometimes things don't quite go as planned. For our 5th anniversary we planned a fun afternoon of lunch and a movie together. Since we were still in Illinois we were eager to see what Springfield had to offer this couple. We were gonna show the city what it meant to be a Davis, if you know what I mean. Instead, poor Don was sick in bed all day with what we believe was food poisoning. I guess we will have to take a rain check.

Our Room

2010-12-15T14:32:00.004-07:00

Since we are in the spirit of decorating...Why stop with the bathroom? We actually did our room a while back but I'm just now getting to the blog.

Here are the before pictures just after painting.

And the room after it is all decorated up. It amazes me how much the color has tamed down after it dried. Thank goodness!

Bathroom makeover

2010-12-15T09:52:00.001-07:00

On HGTV they often pick an item in the room and use at as an inspirational piece for the rest of the room or project. I picked this item for the bathroom.

I've actually had this item in my bathroom for several years and when I got it, I knew one day that I wanted to make a bathroom that had a hospital theme to it. I like to think of it as Don's inspirational room. After all, isn't the bathroom where we do some of our best thinking? So with that in mind, here is Don's Office. Enjoy!

Pictures of Bathroom makeover

2010-12-14T13:30:00.001-07:00

When we moved to Florida we discovered the garbage bag of hospital scrubs I filled for Don to take back to work, never made it back to work. Instead, they ended up on the moving truck. Whoops! So what are you gonna do with a bunch of old scrubs that you cannot wear? Make them do...

Yep, that's a shower curtain.

This eye is one of those items frequently seen on desks next to the posters of nasty eyes in lots of ophthalmology offices. This eye actually comes apart so that people can understand the anatomy of the eye. I placed this bad boy on top of the toilet.

You might be wondering what soap has to do with eyes. The answer, really nothing. I just decided to make soap for guests and put them on the counter in jars that look like hospital canisters. Canister pictures are coming...

I found this little jewel at Target and HAD to have it. Could anything be more fitting for Don's Office?!

Who doesn't love a good Norman Rockwell painting? This one has Don written all over it for multiple reasons. Don grew up in Idaho eat, drinking, and sleeping baseball until he entered college. Even then, he can't ever get enough of it. Anyway, when he was, I think in Jr. high he had to get glasses. The same day he gets his new glasses, he has a game. Don hit a home run that and remembers thinking to himself, "It is so much easier to hit the ball, now that I can see it!"

And More ...Pictures of Bathroom makeover

2010-12-11T13:43:00.001-07:00

Here are the canisters I so promised.

I thought you might like to see the "office" as a whole!

Thanksgiving in Florida

2010-12-04T15:05:00.002-07:00

Robin with Madelyn, Don with Makayla, and Cameron

I have been wanting to put together a reunion for my side of the family for years. It never seemed to be the right time or location though for one reason or another. As time passes, at least in my family, the more spread out we are becoming (geographically) and the more difficult that task seams to become. I had finally thrown in the towel when I got a phone call from my sister one afternoon about a possible time and solution to our problems. Everything just fell into place and worked out nicely. We ended up getting together in Orlando the week of Thanksgiving and stayed in time-share condos that my sister and mother owned. We stayed in three rooms that were all close together and partied like it was 1991! (I think the last time all five of us girls were together for Thanksgiving was 1991.)

Standing L to R: Lori (Stevens) Nielsen, Ashley (Stevens) Drowns, Judy Stevens, Eileen Risley, Parker Drowns.

Sitting L to R: Haley Drowns, Bob Stevens, Addison Drowns, Jordan Sant, Rylee Sant, Mark Greene (on floor), Julie (Stevens) Greene, Cameron Sant, Robin (Stevens) Davis, Don Davis, Madelyn/Makayla (not sure which one) Wright, and Elora Nielsen.

Second half next to Elora is Nathan Nielson, Jonathan Nielsen, and Kaelan Nielsen.

Holly (Stevens) Wright taking the group picture. (Missing from picture who were at the reunion: Grandma Leta Bateman, Kimball Nielsen, Dave Drowns, Kinley Drowns, Justin Wright and Makayla or Madelyn Wright.

Just a random picture with Ashley Drowns holding Kinley Drowns and one of the Wright twins ( I believe it is Madelyn.) Haley Drowns in pink.

Cousins just chillin'.

Jordan, Rylee holding Makayla (I believe) and Parker holding Madelyn.

One of the twins thinking grandpa is pretty funny.

My mother moved to Egypt and brought back outfits for all of us. The girls are sporting theirs here for us. The smallest traditional looking clothes she could find were these. I think the girls still need to grow a bit. L to R: Makayla, Kinley, and Madelyn (I think).

My mom with Kinley in her outfit. You can see it better in this picture.

On our Orlando Family Reunion we of course went to Disney one day.

The girls sporting their new Disney Do's.

Justin screaming like a little girl and Haley looking embarrassed for him. (Just kidding)

Dad and I were in wheelchairs throughout the park. Since we had the free ride, we were called to baby patrol from time to time. We put several to sleep a couple of times throughout the day. As you can see, even grandpa got a nap!

And we had to hit the new Harry Potter Theme Park, my favorite and highlight of the vacation. That week was also the release of the Harry Potter movie which we had to all see as a family. (Lots of Harry Potter fans in this group!)

Of course Don and I with the Conductor. Not sure why the O2 is still in the picture.

Just one of the cute stores and signs.

The Three Broomsticks. A must stop if visiting. Great food and fun environment.

Don and I with our Butterbeer mustaches.

Had to show the family spread we shared with Holly and Justin. Plus we had a salad as well. Lots of yummy food for a surprisingly decent price.

They had so many random things in the books throughout the Park. I just put in some of them hope not to ruin it for others who still want to go.

Leaving the Harry Potter section, Holly and I wanted a picture together. We both loved our day together in the park! We actually asked the conductor if he could move for our picture. Was that rude or what?

The four of us outside the castle. The castle was amazing by the way and I even went on the ride. They told me I couldn't use my o2 so I went without because I wanted to go so bad! Not the best idea I ever had, but worth it.

Holly took this photo on the Hipograph ride! Again, I went on that ride without O2 either!

I had to show the wands. I didn't buy one, but several of the nieces and nephews couldn't resist!

No family vacation of mine would be complete without talent show night and lots of game playing. We busted out the old family favorites and a new family favorite called Ticket to Ride.

Of course Florida in November still means swimming/hot tubbing.

Another family favorite is the Black Friday Shopping, AKA: mad house rock. We got to hit some stores and wait in some sweet lines for good deals.

It was just the perfect week. Everyone was happy, nobody got sick or hurt, we couldn't have asked for much better weather, I mean perfect. Don't you just love those kind of vacations?

Birthday Girls Unite

2010-11-20T14:50:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't know, my mother and stepfather moved to Egypt for a three year work assignment this Fall. We were lucky enough to have mom and grandma (from Utah) come and visit with us for a few weeks. Okay, so they really came for a family reunion, but stayed with us before and after the reunion. Our fun kicked off right away because they flew in on my mother's birthday and the next day was grandmother's birthday!

Mom blowing out her candles on her pumpkin pie. She turned the BIG 60!!

Grandma Bateman blowing out her pumpkin pie. (okay so it was the same pie! We couldn't eat two in such a short amount of time. We have our girlish figures to think about! This was Leta's 84th B-day!

Crazy Party Animals!

Don's 35th Birthday!!

2010-11-09T09:18:00.005-07:00

Don's birthday fell on a Monday this year so we celebrated it in phases. He had to do a presentation the following day so we just did a quick dinner at home. We grilled steak and I made him an apple cobbler from the honey crisp apples that I mentioned earlier.

I'm not sure what he wished here but hopefully it comes true.

We celebrated his birthday in style this year. We went to Daytona Beach and stayed in a time share that his mother has. We went down Halloween weekend. It was so nice to just get out of town and relax. Even though it was only a day and a half, we really felt like we had a well needed mini-vacation. Don wanted me to make him crab rangoon for lunch/dinner on Saturday. We also had fruit dipped in chocolate and sparkling cider to celebrate. We don't have tv, so he wanted to watch a football game, watch a movie (Robin Hood the new one), hot tub it, walk the beach, get his hair cut, and of course catch up on some sleep.

Aren't birthday's great!! Thanks Gail for the get away!

Honey Crisp dancing in my head

2010-10-20T13:52:00.010-06:00

Fact: I grew up on an apple orchard. It was a small orchard, but non the less an orchard.

Fact: Orchards= slave labor to children.

Fact: I don't really care much for raw apples. The orchard didn't help the situation but more than that, apples always make me cough. Not just a little cough, the kind of cough that you cannot stop and you think your just going to loose a lung. So apples and I, not that good of friends.

Backing up about five months, for mother's day, our ward gave the women these bags full of taffy. Don and I were devoring them on our way home from church when I started into a coughing attack. Sure enough I ate an apple flavored taffy piece.

Fact: Did you know apples are a common food allergy? In all these years, I never put two and two together. Dr. Don had to point out the obvious.

So from mother's day on, I have been a little wiser to the allergy issue. It should be noted, the cough only comes on when I eat them raw, some types of apples are worse (red delicious) than others and I think if I remove the skin, I'm okay. Cooked, no problems. Love apple sauce and apple juice and once a year demand a carmel apple. This does cause me to cough, but the carmel tames it somehow.

So now that you know more than you cared to about my apple diet restrictions, I discovered a gem at, of all places, my local Walmart. I grabbed some apples for Don's lunches and he mentioned the next day how good his apple tasted. So I went back and bought him several more. (They are called Honey Crisp and they are huge.)

About a week ago, I got up at 3 am to take care of a low blood sugar. I don't know why, but I decided to grab one of those Honey Crisp apples. I don't even like apples and I was totally consumed with this little piece of heaven! This apple was that good. I kept opening up cupbords and raveging through the fridge looking for perfect combinations to merge with this apple flavor. Like I'm Racheal Ray, right?

So now I've got the countertop covered with items like honey, peanut butter, apricot jelly, granola bars, pretzels, I looked for the carmel but didn't have any, you get the point. So now the plot thickens because in walks Don to ask me what I'm doing. I knew I had to come clean so I told him, "I'm having a love affair in my kitchen at 3 am with this apple!"

Fact: We both got a good laugh.

My cute husband helped me put away my treats and we went back to bed. He went back to bed. I started in on my coughing attack and thought of how I could make something incredible with that apple. For real, the cough was even worth it.

Alas, I have nothing. Nothing ingenous. Any ideas? I did make Don an apple crisp for his birthday... But that's for another blog.

Adults, not just children, say the darndest things...

2010-10-05T08:00:00.000-06:00

The day I stuck plastic up my nose was when it started. The plastic wasn't my choice nor going into public but both had to be done. In fact it took probably 3 months of wearing my new head gear before I went anywhere in public and then I'd sit only in the car. I took little steps like that for months until I had enough courage to be a public display. I would try playing games in my mind like nobody can see the cord or nobody is looking. As time passes, like most trials, it gets easier. Many days I don't think about the oxygen but others, it is a constant reminder. You NEVER get used to it. I still try leaving the house without it about once a month.

The thing that catches me off guard, still, in public, isn't the stares. It isn't even the kids loudly asking, "What's wrong with her?" over and over again at the top of their lungs while parents ignore their requests and now everyone is looking. (Very common in the grocery store. Almost every time I go in one.) Or even the complete stranger who is also on oxygen and wants to compare drug lists and oxygen reqirements. (Also a grocery store thing, usually in produce.) The worst thing is the comments from ignorant adults. These are far more rare, about once a year, and perhaps that's the reason it catches me so off guard. Not only do we expect more from adults but experience has to count for something and some adults out there, I'm concerned to say, have learned just about nothing in their 40+ years. Like when to keep their mouth shut.

For example, a few months ago Don and I were running into Home Depot and a women approached us in the parking lot to ask us if we were aware that we had parked in a handicap parking stall. Mind you I am standing there with plastic up my nose and Don holding my tank. We responded in the affirmative and then she proceeded to tell us a long story about her son who parked in a handicap stall illegally and was fined BIG TIME. This story was followed by the look over the spectacles. We finally just walked away.

I had another guy that followed me into the ladies room to tell me that if I just stopped consuming so much sugar, I would loose the weight and the oxygen. He didn't know one thing about me, but he didn't have to, because as he said in his broken english, "I am a doctor." I didn't ask what kind or for a card.

So the first week we are in Florida, we are heading out to our cars (We had Don's family and and another family friend with us) after eating at Wendy's. Just before hitting the door, this stranger approaches me and begins asking questions about my health condition. (At this point I am thinking, "Brace yourself. Here we go again.") He tells me he has been reading this book, (not one I've heard of) about faith and healing. He admits he is just learning more about the book and that I caught his attention when we walked in. He felt compelled to meet me, and pray for me, but wanted to know what to pray for. We talked for a few minutes and then I realized he wanted to pray right NOW. He offered the prayer for me and Don and I think Gail (Don's mom) standing right there in the Wendy's doorway. The prayer was painfully long and uncomfortable. But you know what, I walked away inspired by that man. He was genuinely kind. He wanted to help and had a good heart. I wish that I had the same courage he had to share the gospel with others. He didn't care how dumb he looked or sounded, he just had a job to do and was willing to get it done. Good on him!

So my point today is this, if your going to approach anyone today or ever, lets do it with a heart. Let's be genuine, sincere, and nice of all things. And if we learned one thing from Bambie, "If you can't say something nice, don't say nothin' at all".

Don, what can I say, Just a likable guy

2010-10-01T11:09:00.000-06:00

My Utah lung transplant team had an individual we will call "PJ", (that is not his real name), that was the PA. I loved PJ. Just a down to earth guy. He was funny and smart. He was well rounded, made wedding cakes on the side. Married and had kids. Nicest guy you will ever meet. Love PJ.

PJ had this one "thing" about him that particularly made me laugh. He had an unusual taking for Don. I don't mean this in any sexual way, but he really liked Don. Every time I saw him, his first question was always, "How's Don?" Isn't that unusual since I'm the one on the exam table? If Don stopped in during an office visit or if PJ ran into Don in the hall, he'd be to Don like stink. In fact, when Don would come to an appointment, he'd always pull Don down the hall to look at my x-ray or lab work and discuss treatment together. I'd find my husband a half hour later by the sound of their laughs in another room. If Don showed up, I was dead to PJ. I didn't mind, though. I actually loved watching it. I was all too humored and entertained that someone had a "Man Crush" on my husband. Then of course, there was the teasing when we got home about PJ's Man Crush that was endless fun for me. Oh, I miss those days....

Lest you think Don's charm ends there, Au contrair. My Grandmother thinks Don can do no wrong. When we were working on her book together we would often do lunch and then she would always want to pick Don up from work and take him out to dinner. She would tell me almost every time she'd see him how lucky I was to have such a wonderful husband and that she thinks of Don as one of her own grandchildren. She isn't one of those people that says, "I love you" much but she always tells Don that when he puts her in her car to leave.

When we moved, she bought him treats for the move, not me, just Don. I write her personal history but Don gets the treats!? Just the other day I was talking to her on the phone and she cut me off to ask, how old will Don be on his birthday? That's about a month away! I know my grandma loves me. It just makes me smile because I'm glad my family loves the man I love. But non the less, endless teasing from me about Don being the favorite grandkid.

So you see Don, I have no choice but to love you. Your irresistible!

Silver Alert!

2010-09-25T09:48:00.003-06:00

This state never ceases to amaze me. I just switched to Florida auto insurance last week and we have all sorts of strange additional state laws that tack on an additional $100/car. I think I found where that extra $100 goes each year. I'm driving down the highway and see a sign flashing Silver Alert followed by a description of a make and model of the vehicle and a license plate. If spotted please contact police department. Now I have heard of Amber Alerts for missing children but Silver Alert?! I went home and googled it. Yep, just what you think, old person gone missing but this time THEY are the driver! I cannot help but think what is going to happen in October when the real crazies move down for the winter. Stay off the sidewalks?!

Life in Florida

2010-09-22T19:00:00.000-06:00

Some things that I didn't know...

There are several things I didn't know about Florida until I moved here. One of those surprises was the LIZARDS!

I'm going to back up a few years, actually about 12. When my niece, Haley was born she was all girl. I have never seen a child with so many fears of bugs. When she was about 18 months old she would seriously freeze up in fear over a lady bug. She would go into this trance- like state and repeat "bug" over and over. We finely learned if we told her the bug was outside, she would repeat "outside," and the trance- like state would end. Life would be restored as we knew it. I am sorry to say Haley, we got a lot of laughs at your expense.

So now I'm living among the world of lizards. Do you know how strange it is to get out of your car and hear scurrying in the bushes? I mean, every time you get out of the car? At first you feel like someone is following you all the time.

Well, I took these pictures of baby lizards. They are living right outside my slider. How cute!

Cute until they decide your domain is their domain. That's right, they got inside. I asked around how you set traps for these little guys, and the Floridians thought that was hilarious. I have been told get used to them in the house, after all, they are harmless and only eat bugs.

So I have now seen my pet lizard in my kitchen on multiple occasions. The first encounter, I froze in a trance-like state. I suppose it is genetic. I tried lying to myself and repeating the word "outside" but that only works for 18 month olds. I did have a break through therapy session of my own though. I took my sister's advice and named the lizard after an old girl stocker of Don's, Sally Ann. I now rock and tell myself "Sally Ann" is just cleaning under my stove and under the fridge where I cannot clean. Sally Ann, Sally Ann....

Don's First Day as an Ophthalmology Resident

2010-09-21T18:40:00.000-06:00

I wanted to do something fun for Don on his first day of Residency so...

I did what came to mind and started coloring pictures.

Not knowing if he'd slip in through the garage or the front door, I had to make two signs.

I cannot even remember now what I made, but we ate in candlelight. I took these just before he got home.

This was one candlelight I used. Don and I put this together when we moved here. It is hard to see here but the glass has the Nauvoo Temple (where we got married) etched in it. Isn't that cool! His brother, Jim, gave it to us for Christmas. Thanks Jim.

Florida on Steroids in 90 seconds

2010-09-20T13:40:00.007-06:00

For those of you who watched the show Lost and kept up over the years, this will be a breeze. If not, before every season, Lost always did a 90 second, or one hour, blip to catch the viewer up to speed. I was always amused by how they would attempt to condense such an elaborate plot into these small time constraints. I don't know just how well a novice really could just jump in and know what the heck was going on, but today I will attempt the Lost approach, or perhaps we should call this the "Florida story on steroids". (I think the later will be more fitting once you hear the story.)

So FIRST, let me just say we got down here and found out we didn't qualify for any medicaid, medicare, social security for disabilities, nothing. Don makes over $700 a month, that is the Florida cut off. (I can seriously hear the Lost women's voice speaking and saying this as fast as possible with little jokes inserted. If you know the voice, this is a lot more fun.)

SECOND, Don's insurance doesn't pay well for prescriptions or oxygen.

So with that blip of info...we will now skip ahead about 2 weeks of painting and moving and lining up doctor's appointments. My lung transplant team that I will be seeing here is in Gainsville, about 2 hours away. I set up a first appointment a month out. Told that is as soon as I can be seen.

Fast forward in Florida about a month (two weeks before my appointment). I notice that my blood sugars have suddenly jumped up and have been for a week with no other symptoms. (This is a sign of infection.) Then, one afternoon I wake from a nap with shortness of breathe and pain in my chest when I inhale. I know this sign. This is not my first rodeo. I have seen this many times before as a precursor to pneumonia and know I have less than 48 -72 hours to get on IV drugs before she really gets mean. ICU mean.

I call Gainsville and explain the situation. I am told that I am technically not their patient because the doctor has never seen me before and therefore, not their problem! I was advised to either wait for two weeks to be seen by a transplant doctor or go to the ER in Jacksonville.

Now every reader pay close attention to this next line: IF you have a gun shot wound, your stabbed, or you've overdosed on a street drug, Jacksonville might possibly be the best hospital in the whole wide world for you to be in. They've seen your type before. They are a good hospital in some areas. Let me caution you though, IF you stop breathing, continue on to the next available hospital.

I spent three weeks in the Jacksonville hospital, one of those weeks in ICU, waiting for a bed to open in Gainsville. I was then transfered by ambulance to Gainsville where I stayed for another additional week. Next to the transplant, and it might have even rivaled that, last month was my worst month on record.

I am home now and taking every day as it comes. I have bounced back in many ways so much quicker than expected and in other ways have a long road of recovery ahead of me. Thank you for all your prayers, cards of encouragement, texts, phone calls, emails, etc. We have seen the Lord bless us, strengthen us when we felt we could go no further, stretch us beyond what we thought was possible, and watch miracles again be performed through Priesthood Blessings.

Also, for those who hadn't yet heard, my family was also undergoing a lot at that same time. Ashley's family sold their beautiful home and moved into my Mom and Dave's house. Mom and Dave are moving to Egypt the end of this month for a job assignment. In the process of the big move, Dave Drowns (Ashley's husband) passed several kidney stones and was laid up for about two weeks. This is about when I went into ICU and then about a week later, Dave (my step father) was rushed to ER for his appendix to be removed! Everyone is good now.

Did you do it in 90 seconds? Try again.

Florida Condo

2010-09-19T18:12:00.003-06:00

This is the before picture of our front room. It has 10 foot celings and with that dark of a blue in the room, it made for a very dark room. The landlord told us he would give us money if we wanted to pant... HECK YEA!! Nobody has let me paint a wall before so this was an adventure.

Deciding on a paint color was about 5 trips to Lowes, that's not an exaggeration. I finally choose a two tone look. The top of the wall is about the color of avocado and the bottom a shade lighter and then white baseboards and put up a chair rail.

This is Don's mom, Gail, or as we liked to call her Aunt Jemima. She did all the top work and wore this hat out of paper towels to protect her hair from paint. It is a good look! Thank you Gail for all your help and hard work.

Our end product! We also did our bedroom. I will have to post those when I get the room put together a little more. Stay posted.

Normans

2010-09-19T11:21:00.001-06:00

When Don and I found out we were moving to Florida we immediately began making plans. We thought for months how we could financially make the transition, something that weighed on us heavily. We saved as much money as we could each month, but it was realistically meager. I had done my research and knew it would cost us about $3000.oo just to move our stuff to Florida. As Florida became more of a reality, so did our financial situation. We prayed that a way would be provided but no solution became obvious.

Don kept looking into buying trailers or looking for people we knew that we could borrow theirs for a cheeper rate. (I must admit here, I thought both ideas were unpractical. What would we do with a big trailer and they cost more than to rent? If we borrowed one, how would we get it back to them? The cost of going two ways across the country wouldn't even be cost effective.)

In February, Don went home to Idaho to help remodel his mother's kitchen. I had just had sinus surgery and we thought the dust could be pretty harmful to me so I stayed home that weekend. Don called me one night in Idaho and told me he had solved the trailer problem! Family friends had agreed to let us use their snowmobile trailer to move to Florida. I know I should have been thrilled, but instead panic washed over me. Again, nice idea, but not cost effective. How would we even get it back to them? I didn't really consider this as a solution but another issue to throw in the pot just to stir.

Always listen to your husband. Instead, I kept looking and looking and looking. April now approaches and we learn that these friends of the family, ones I barely knew, had already made plans to take off work the first week of June to drive the trailer to Florida for us and back! They had planned a family vacation around our move!? This is a family that barely knows us, yet was willing to give the trailer off their back for us!

Okay, so it didn't end there...the week before we move, they bring down the trailer from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake so that we can load it up. We loaded up the trailer and then drove that and their truck to Idaho Falls. We drive our car with Gail a week earlier to Jacksonville to paint and get medicaid lined up. They drive across the country in this trailer in a pick up truck with three kids, Tom (Don's brother), and the two parents (Denna and Scott)! THEN, they refuse to take any money for gas, we had to sneak that in when we could.

On the way to Florida, Scott decides to drive straight thru from Idaho to Jacksonville, only stopping for gas. (They did stop one night though each way.) Still crazy. During one of these crazy long stretches of driving, just as the sun is rising, a trucker motions for them to pull over. One of the tires on the trailer was flat. Had they not been flagged down, the trailer would have flipped. What a miracle that the sun was finally up to see the problem and that someone flagged them down in enough time.

The Normans were such a blessing to us. They spent five days with us in one of Gail's condos in Orlando. We all went to the Alligator Farm, beach, and of course shopping. They drove back with another person (Gail), if you can believe it, in that truck. I don't know how the heck they all fit. I suppose the same way the clowns all fit in the small cars at the circus.

We will forever be indebted to the Norman's for their kind generosity. We hope one day to be able to repay you for all you've done for us. Love the Normans!!

Computer Twilight Zone

2010-09-18T14:35:00.004-06:00

I have started, retyped, deleted, and rewritten this blog post at least three times. My initial idea was to open a new blog to symbolize our new start in Florida. Unfortunately, I keep running into snag after snag. Let's face it, I am far from computer savvy and will say this again til my dying day, "computers and I don't get along." If I had a quarter for every time I heard someone say, "My computer was working just a minute ago", as they try to pull up something or type in something at the hospital, I would own the hospital!

I honestly believe I have some funky magnetic pull in this body that messes up any and every computer. It is a curse I have come to accept over the years. With that said, my personal computers do much the same. For instance, I have no idea where the music on this blog is coming from. I never added it and cannot figure out how to get it off. I have been told by several people who read my blog that they cannot always read my posts or that only old posts pop up or the new post pops up only months later.... all I can tell you is, Friends, I'm sorry, welcome to my world in the computer twilight zone!

Our Third Family

2010-05-18T11:20:00.003-06:00

Packing for Florida has allowed me lots of time to get lost in my thoughts. Lately, my mind has been reflective on a blessing that I had when I moved to Salt Lake. I was blessed that I would make many eternal friendships. Of course this is where I met Don but I also see so many faces of other dear friends in my mind that complete that blessing.

When I moved to Salt Lake in 2003, I lived alone. Some of you may remember that. Anyway, I lived by myself in a pretty sketchy part of town. My days always started out the same way, like in Groundhogs Day, but instead of 'Waking up with Flem' on the radio, it began with aluminum, glass, and/or metal being thrown into a grocery cart. It was always the same guy going through the dumpster and I guess he had the "street rights" to this particular dumpster because none of the other bums went near our trash. I once saw this man pull out melted ice cream and sit on my steps to finish it off. He never, to my knowledge, hurt anyone or said anything to anyone, but I wasn't exactly trying to befriend him either. He wasn't the only bum in the neighborhood. They were everywhere.

I never felt unsafe in my apartment but as soon as I walked out that door, the fear of the unknown was always lurking. It was a very unsettling feeling. I met a dear friend at this time through the singles ward. I would call this poor girl all hours of the day and night as my "buddy system." We figured if I was on the phone and something happened. she could at least get me help. It was this same friend who later invited me to come live with her and her family.

As the story goes, I had planned on moving to another apartment in Bountiful and the week before I was to move in, they pulled the contract out from under me. I looked frantically for another place but found nothing. Kellie insisted that I just move in with them. So I moved in with the Kruger family with the intent on staying just until I found a place.

The Krugers took me into their home right away. We had a lot of fun during that year and a half. I felt like I had another set of siblings. There were four of us in the singles ward and the other siblings were all married but lived close by. Every Sunday we had family dinner with the whole gang and over the years, it was as if they too had become my family.

When Don and I were dating and engaged, I was living with the Krugers. Carla and Randy (the parents) just fell in love with Don right away and again added another person to their family circle. We both consider the Krugers our Utah Family.

We spent Mother's day this year with the Krugers. How fun it was to reminisce about the good old days. It's just been 4 and a half years since I left the Kruger household but so much already I had forgotten. Just quickly, more for me, I want to share a few things about the family.

Carla- She is so good at being non judgmental of others. She would spend hours and give the shirt off her own back to help someone else out. I can remember her spending countless hours with a family in their ward that she visit taught. This family had so many issues but she just loves people openly. She is also a fantastic therapist. I loved sitting at the kitchen table and talking to Carla about life and her philosophies of life. One piece of advice I will never forget her teaching me is, never apologies for the way your house looks. If it is messy, so what. If your company doesn't like it, they can leave.

Randy- The best trait that Randy has is his laugh. We've all met people who when they laugh they lighten up the whole room, Randy not only lightens up the room, you have to laugh with him. The longer your around him, the louder your laugh becomes. He has an amazing gift to look at every day life events and just laugh. The first time I met Randy he was scooping up Rockie's (the dog) piles of throw up throughout the house. He had just had knee surgery and had a hard time bending down but he was laughing the entire time!

Kellie- I believe Kellie got the best traits from both of her parents. She has the heart of her mother and the laugh of her father. Kellie once was on Temple Square and just started talking to this girl. She found out this girl was from another country and just passing by. Kellie just invited this girl home and then take her early the next morning to the train station. On the way home from the train station, she picked up two elderly couples and took them to the airport!

Christy- 'Risty Ruger' as I call her, is like her dad in that she laughs a lot at life but she has that quiet simple laugh whereas Kellie's is a hearty one. Christy is the kind of friend everyone wants: loyal, dependable, and honest. My favorite story about Christy is when Kellie comes in the house and asks Christy if she put a dent in the car? Cute Christy, and I know I will never do it justice in print, says "I don't know if I did. Actually, I did." (That car Randy sold for $30 to the neighbor weeks later so a dent wasn't a big deal.) It was just the way she said it that made us all laugh so hard.

I could go on and on about the Kruger family and one day perhaps I will, but for today, suffice it to say, I love the Kruger Family and they will be missed greatly.

My 34th Birthday

2010-04-19T14:53:00.005-06:00

We kind of had a Birthday weekend, if you will. Saturday was all about the marathon. Every year in Salt Lake on the same weekend, they host this marathon that closes every major street downtown for half the day. It is a nightmere to navigate through when you are moving across town. We know because we did it for the past three years. This year, no move just a lunch appointment that was calling, that was naturally downtown. In fact it was located right where the marathon ended. So our learned SL navigational skills came in handy once more.

One of Don's bosses took all the Fellows and their spouses out to lunch to Tusconos. If you've never eaten at Tusconos, let me make this clear, it is a meat lovers haven. All you can eat meat. To make this experience a little more humoring, this is a small Brazilian women. This women is one of those ladies that if she is standing sideways, you just might miss her. Seriously small and yet she can eat circles around everyone. (I have seen this women eat on multiple occations and it is always the same.) Her method to the madness she calls eating, was eat slow and pace yourselves. This was a new kind of marathon for me. We got there at high noon and ate until 3:30! Who eats that long?!

When we left like stuffed pork on the skewer, we decided we were either going to slip into a heavy coma or work off some of that meat. So we worked off the meat the way I enjoy marathoning it... shopping! All I wanted this year was new clothes. So with a little green and a bit of luck we snagged some fun deals. Among some of my purchases, I got two pair of jeans and two shirts at Down East for under $40!

Sunday was my actual Birthday but because church doesn't start until one, it kind of eats up the day. We brought cupcakes for our Primary class. I wish I had gotten pictures of that because who knew 6 and 7 year olds are still way messy eaters. They had chocolate all over themselves. Poor Jayden had his shirt covered in chocolate. Don was wiping faces with used napkins as I collected trash as fast as possible. It was pretty funny.

The picture above is me at home blowing out my cupcake before I ate it after church. Aren't birthdays fun?!

pictures of Grandma's Personal History...

2010-04-17T17:52:00.000-06:00

Grandma's maiden name is Wright, hence the title.

I thought a few pages of the book might be fun to post. this page has her church blessing certificate and birth certificate on the opposite page.

I decided to write the book like our conversations. I just inserted our names in bold to differentiate between speakers and inserted pictures where I thought they were most appropriate.

In the back of the book I included pedigree charts and family group sheets with as many pictures of the family members as we had. When it was all said and done, it was about 200 pages and a lot of fun. Don's grandmother is next.

Cloud Walker

2010-04-16T13:42:00.003-06:00

Today I feel like I am back in college. I'm not sure if it is the spring in the air, the rattle of my muffler, or the dirty pair of jeans I pulled on to run out the door. It started like the typical college morning with the phone waking me and the panic begins. You realize you've slept in and it is almost time you were leaving. You race through the obstacles of boxes you've packed the night before in preparation for another move, again like college. Breakfast is just a handful of medicine, the hair pulled back in a pony tail and you hope the grease doesn't shine through. The heart is pounding but you finally get yourself out the door.

The best part of college, besides the social, was finals. Not the actual exam itself, but the aftermath of the exam. That moment when you lay the test on the desk and walk out the door or even better yet, when you leave the testing center with an A. It was in those moments with the last final done, walking home with the spring in the air, that everything felt right for just a moment. The weight of life seemed to be gone. It was like after the 4 months of torture, nothing, not even moving, could stress you out now. Marathons were in consideration for peat sake! Life in that 20 minute walk was magical.

Everyone should experience that kind of a moment in their lifetime. I'm not saying it has to be a final exam, but just that cloud walking moment. Today, the cloud walking moment happened again for me. Today I had an appointment with the publisher and we placed Grandmother's book. It is done! Bring on the RAIN!!

Time

2010-03-31T11:54:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure if what I want is more hours in the day or just more days, but my head is swimming. Our condo as of this week, is for sale. Today the realtor is coming to take the pictures. We will have the open house rush sometime in the next few weeks. I'm renting mind you and next week I plan to start the moving process. So for all those out there in my same predicament, how do you pack and keep the house nice enough for people to go through?

I have been less than diligent writing in the blog world for entirely other reasons. For those of you who don't know, I have been working on writing my grandmother's personal history for about the last two years. My goal is to finish it by the end of this month, TODAY, and get it to the publishers before we move. I am almost there. I have been putting in about 10 hour days for the last three weeks trying to get this done and I can now smell the ink from the printing press, that's how close we are!

pictures of Cutting Don's hair for the first time

2010-02-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

This is my first time cutting Don's hair. He looks like he is as calm as a summers morning...

Like a lamb to the slaughter. Heaven help us all!

Brave

2010-02-20T12:20:00.005-07:00

Why is it that we have to relearn how to be brave? I think I was braver in some ways at age 3 than I am today at 33 and I have to question why. At age 3, I was brave enough to allow my older sister to take a pair of scissors to my hair and just chop away. No big deal. So fast forward about 30 years of my life and you will see me sitting at the barber waiting for Don to get his hair cut and wondering how we always get into this mess. I cannot tell you how many terrible hair cuts that kid has had since we've been married. Just when I think nobody could possibly cut his hair any worse than the last, they prove me wrong! It is almost humoring now.

With that said, his last hair cut was about two months ago. Don is again in need of a hair cut something fierce and yet where do we go? After about two weeks of coaxing, I finally got up the courage to do it myself. I don't mean to brag, but I think it is the best hair cut he has had since we've been married. So today, I am posting to say I am one step closer to brave, or perhaps age 3, and it is liberating!

Sinus Surgery

2010-02-18T10:21:00.005-07:00

Since about August of 2008 I have been doing home IV's to fight lung infections. I have still been able to get out and about but just more cautious. Why all the lung infections has been a mystery and a bit troubling for all of us. Last week my transplant doctor decided to send me to the ENT (ear, nose and throat) doctor. The ENT was in the room with me for about a whole 30 seconds before he said the "s" word, Surgery. Now for those out there who don't know my medical history or care to file such events away, I have had sinus surgery on two other occasions, the first sent me to ICU and the second, just a nice long hospital stay. Sinus surgery is NOT high on my to do list, if you know what I mean. My last surgery was about 10 years ago and this ENT is telling me that he recommends to his CF patients a clean out about every 6 months. I'm a little overdue.

I left his office telling him if he could convince my transplant doctor it was necessary that I would trust their judgement and go through with it. I figured we don't have much for options at this point. We are again against that rock and hard spot. I cannot keep doing IV's and yet this may be the worst upset to the apple cart just yet.

Surgery was scheduled within a week. That week, Don got a sinus infection and about Valentines Day, I came down with it. So at this point, surgery is in two days and I am seriously wondering how well my body will do with a sinus infection and surgery on top of everything else. The night before surgery Don gave me a blessing. I knew from the blessing that all would go well. I was promised that I would not get pneumonia at this time, that my body would heal, knit, and mend quickly, that I would do well in surgery, and that my lung would tolerate the medication well.

I went into surgery surprisingly calm yesterday morning at 8:30. They were able to use less medication than even they'd anticipated. I was able to stay awake and watch the entire procedure with very little pain. I kept my oxygen stats at 100% for almost the entire duration without bumping up the oxygen, unheard of. I didn't have the bad shakes coming down from the drugs like I usually get, which is the worse part of the drugs for me. (That requires a lot of oxygen.) By 11:00 am I was being wheeled out to my car to GO HOME! That's right, not even a hospital overnight observation.

I took one dose of tylenol about an hour after I left the hospital but that has been my only pain killers. No pain, no stuffy nose, no crazy bleeding, no nausea, nothing. Now I did take a 3 1/2 hour nap yesterday afternoon and felt a little weak yesterday but what a cake walk! Last night I looked over our instructions again following surgery and had to laugh. They said to only sip liquids following surgery until I knew how I would handle food. I went straight from the hospital and asked for soup, salad, and breadsticks at Olive Garden!

Again, we have been humbled and blessed by all the prayers in my behalf and the blessings that come by good medical staff and of course the blessings that the Lord gives us. It is just another testimony to me that He is aware of us and our needs and loves to bless all of His children.

Valentines Day Weekend

2010-02-16T11:52:00.004-07:00

Our Valentines weekend was a bit unusual for us. Common for many of you, but again not for us. We went out of town to house sit for my sister and her husband while they went on a little get away. They have four kids, an exchange student, and two dogs. Not one of those things are familiar to us. We got to her house Friday night and were greeted outside by the two dogs. (What they were doing roaming the streets, we'll never know.) The better news, we did find the 8 year old twins playing the wii, another babysiting the neighbors, and the fourth making mac and cheese "in his own special way". The exchange student, well he was MIA but I figured 4 out of 5 ain't bad for a couple of rookies.

I must say, both Don and I were surprised how much easier the weekend went than we had expected. For all you with teenagers on the horizon, there is hope. You always hear how difficult those teen years are but I found one huge perk. LESS WORK! No lie, Saturday morning I woke up to the doorbell ringing at 7 am. Who was at the door? One of the twins. Family rule: No TV or video games until all chores are done. That kid got up at who knows what hour to wash windows and locked himself outside.

Somehow the floors were all vacuumed, which I slept through, the dishes were all done, floors swept, garbage taken out, kids dressed and ready to go for the day and I'm just getting the crusties out of my eyes. This was truly an eye opener. The rest of the weekend, if I asked if something was a chore, my wish had been granted. Lori's already thought of it! Who knew that a chore would be setting the table and bamb, someone is on it. No fighting, no arguing, no singing Barney songs to pick stuff up, just do it! I'm telling you, I was just another adult in the way of this well oiled machine!

We went home Sunday morning to teach our Primary class and then celebrated Valentines Day this year on Monday. Our celebration had to be really cheap this year so we decided to go to the temple in the morning and then use a gift certificate that Don got for Christmas to eat at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch. We ended our fun day with a little reading. That's right we still have three more chapters to go with the Twilight Series. (I think we have been reading this book for about a year and a half, not the series, just the last book. We read the others in record time, and have read her other series, but we are Twilight pooped out. We already have our next book lined up to read but have told ourselves we can't start it until we finish this one.) Happy Valentines Day!

Out of the mouth of babes...

2010-02-01T10:27:00.002-07:00

Last week in Primary I brought my big oxygen tank. I usually take a smaller tank that fits into a backpack because they are easier to move around, but last week we'd ran out. So I was at the mercy of the big tank. You know the ones with the metal roller on two wheels. (I'm sure you've all seen them.) Anyway, it turns out those tanks are a big distraction for kids. I had three kids that couldn't stop touching the dumb thing or asking me lots of questions. I made a mental note to never bring that to primary again. So this week I sit down and the 4 year old in front of me turns around (one of the kids that was mesmerized with the tank last week) and asks, "Where is your vacuum cleaner"?

The vacuum cleaner boy is a pretty active kid. His teacher was MIA. So Don decides he should sit next to the kid until his teacher shows up. He pulls up the chair next to the 4 year old and says, "Can I sit next to you"? Tyler says in such a sweet calm voice, "No thank you, Brother Davis."

Don continues to get the girl love though! Not even from the same girl, two new ones!! Yeah, another girl in our class held his arm and laid her head on his shoulder during singing time. And then, a little sunbeam, (sunbeams are only 3 year olds mind you) bent her head back in her chair and mouthed to Don, "I love you"! I asked him if he was sure she didn't just say "olive juice". I'm not kidding if some kid comes next week with "I love you" written on her eye lids, (just like in Indiana Jones), I'm not going to be surprised!

Lung Transplant B-day #12

2010-01-20T13:20:00.002-07:00

My right lung and body have been one for 12 big ones now! My how time flies. Every year I have a ritual of going to the temple on my transplant birthday (or the day before if it is closed) to memorialize my donor. This year we decided to go where this lung had never gone before...Rexburg, Idaho Temple. We headed for Idaho for a good reason this weekend, to breath. If you hadn't heard, Salt Lake City has the worst air quality in the nation right now and has for about a good week. The sky is so nasty brown and you can taste the crap in the air. Within minutes, I'm coughing. I stay close to home on days like that. We figured Idaho should have cleaner air and free lodging, making it a nice 3 day weekend.

Saturday was my birthday so Don and I went and did a session in the Rexburg Temple. I am sorry that we forgot the camera. Both of us went to school up there but didn't know each other then. The temple is a more recent addition to the town since we were there and it was both of our first time through. It is a very small temple and I can honestly say, I have never seen such young temple workers. (Usually they are retired. Here college aged.)

After the temple, we drove around campus to check out our old stomping grounds. We reminisced about the good ol' days and then both of us got in the mood for the famous Craigos bread sticks. FYI: Craigos has moved up town.

Me just outside the new Craigos location. Much nicer inside than the old dive but same great food.

Okay, so we place our order and the lady gives us a number to put on our table. Can you guess what our number was? Can you believe, 16! Talk about a sign. So the number 16 has become a lucky number for me because I waited 16 months on the transplant list, my donor was 16 years old, and I was transplanted on January 16th!

Primary Up-date

2010-01-20T13:08:00.002-07:00

Just a little side note about one of the girls in our class. I won't mention her name, but she is cute and a very observant little girl. I catch her and her sisters every week just staring at Don and I. Her mother has told us multiple times that her kids just love us. I don't know why, but they do. Anyway, last week they put us in a huge circle in primary for singing time. Don and I were on opposite ends of the circle and at one point I look over and this girl in our class is leaning on Don's shoulder and full on stroking the side of his face with her hand! I busted out laughing. The poor girl looked half asleep and not sure if she really realized what she was doing but regardless, I have teased Don about it all week.

Primary Class 2010- Wonder Twin Power Activate

2010-01-20T12:33:00.003-07:00

Don and I team teach the 6-7 year olds in our Primary. I have a picture of me when I was that age with my Primary class on the baptismal font stairs. My teacher, Sister Ratz, taught that same class I think for a million years because all my sisters had her as their teacher. Every year she would take her class down to the baptism font and talk to them about preparing for their baptism. She had these footprints cut out of paper representing the steps to baptism and then took our pictures as a class holding the footprints. I love that picture. I grew up with most of those kids and it is fun to see how we have all grown and turned out. (I'll have to dig the picture up sometime when we get back to Illinois.)

I thought wouldn't it be fun to take a picture with our kids in the baptismal font and give them their picture when we leave in June as a going away present. My idea was squashed when I learned our church building doesn't have a font. Apparently, they only put fonts in the stake buildings in Utah. So I had to go with Plan B: take a class picture with our CTR rings.

Here we are in our Wonder Twin Glory and all! From L to R: Robin, Don, Samantha (who is autistic and blind), Delila, Aunika, PJ and AJ (yes, they are brother and sister, not twins), Izaak, and Grace. We are missing Jayden, who was sick that day.

(For those of you wondering what a CTR ring is, it is a ring that has been a Mormon tradition since the 1970's. We give them to the kids to help them remember to Choose The Right. The idea is that if they can begin at a young age to make good choices, then when they are baptized at age 8, it won't be so hard to choose right over wrong. The ring is just something fun to help remind them. If they loose the ring, like they will in the first 72 hours, they have another reminder, it is so cheap it turns their finger green!)

2010...Bring it

2010-01-19T14:51:00.003-07:00

New Years...

Not every year can be rung in with pure gusto, you've got to have some off ones for the gusto years. This year, Don and I celebrated with very poor gusto you might say. We came home from Idaho Falls on New Years Eve to pick up some IV drugs. (I'm back on IV's throughout our anniversary and Christmas break.) Anyway, we must be old, because on the way home we decide hunkering down for the night and ringing in the New Year with a quiet movie sounded exciting to us. So we celebrated in true traditional Davis style...at 10pm. That's right, we saw the ball drop in New York with Ryan Seacrest, drank our bubbly, and hopped to bed. Don't judge us!

All this newness of another year does make one reflect on their past year and accomplishments. We've been blessed in many ways in 2009. Just to name a few things...

1. Don got into an Ophthomology program in Florida

2. We found the perfect apartment for us, after months of searching

3. Our car made it one more year, again. And we still haven't replaced the muffler even though we should have about 9 months ago. Neighbors love us.

4. Don finished internship year and loves his new job. We've had a wonderful year with weekends and no call!

5. We have the best church calling- we team teach the 7 and 8 year olds in Primary.

6. And above all, we are happy.

Heavenly Father has really been generous to the Davis household. As always, we are daily reminded and thankful for His love and for the sacrifice of our Savior in our behalf.

New Year Resolutions are also pouring in now for 2010 and I have posted some of mine. All those faithful readers of mine, would you please ask me how I am doing on these goals throughout the year at random times? I can always use extra prodding.

1. Exercise 20 min a day

2. Get to the Temple 12 times a year

3. Learn how to be a better photographer

4. Complete Grandma Bateman's personal history

Christmas 2009

2010-01-19T14:39:00.002-07:00

This year we spent the Christmas Holiday with Don's family in Idaho Falls. We just went right up there from our Logan anniversary trip. Don had about 10 days of vacation this year with no call! (Somtheing that will unlikely ever happen again.) We soaked in all 10 of those days. You might ask what does one do with all that time? To this day, I'm not entirely sure where it all went. We played games two nights- Yatzee and Zarahemla, went shopping to hit the after Christmas specials, picked out all new kitchen appliances for Gail's kitchen remodel, visited some of Don's high school friends-Ryland, Brandon, and Eric, but mostly we hung out with family and ate way too much yummy food. Good times!

4th Wedding Anniversary

2010-01-19T13:50:00.003-07:00

This year was a splurge! We went up to Logan, Utah for our 4th year anniversary. We stayed at an Anniversary Inn and Suites theme room called Juliet's Balcony. It was a room I've had my eye on for several years but the price tag kept us away. With Florida coming around the corner, and this being on our "last chance list of things to do", we decided to book it months in advance. We had linner (lunch/dinner) in Logan at a place called The Blue Bird Cafe. If your ever in Logan, you'll have to check out this place. We ate for under $20 for the two of us and we were stuffed. Just a cute place with yummy food and great staff.

As far as our room, it even surpassed my expectations. It was two levels. On the top level, which is where I am sitting in this picture, just outside the bathroom. A nice balcony is to my right.

Here is Don upstairs in a sitting room looking off like he is in a J Crew magazine. Okay I made him do that pose.

This was the hot tub downstairs and we also had a nice big table and fridge in the same room.

This was the second flat screen TV that was downstairs with the hot tub. The water fountain wall thing was a fun touch too! And Finally, I had to add the picture of the walk in shower in our bathroom. I loved that it had so many shower heads. This picture doesn't even get them all! Doesn't it make you want to be rich?

We had a great time. The next morning we topped off our Logan trip by visiting Gosner's Dairy. If you didn't already know this about me, I like my cheese! I had to get a good cheese ball and some muenster cheese slices for the Christmas break.

Don't Cross the Line

2009-12-23T14:07:00.002-07:00

There are stories, every couple has em', that you look back on and chuckle. At the time they might not be so funny, though. This was one of those. Don and I were newly married , within our first 4 months, I'd say, and living at our first apartment above a garage in Salt Lake. I always get up in the night to potty, (more info than you might want to know) and always come back to bed cold. Don has always let me snuggle up next to him to warm back up. Anyway, this particular night when I climbed back into bed, my pigs were particularly cold I guess because Don jumped up, pulled himself away real quick, and snapped something to me that I couldn't hear. Then he grabbed a pillow, placed it between us in bed and told me , "Don't cross this line!"

I was so upset that he would treat me that way. He has always treated me so well, like a queen, honestly. My thoughts began to run wild wondering if the honeymoon was already fading and he wouldn't treat me very well. What if this was the beginning of the end? Is my marriage in danger? The more I thought about the event, the more upset and mad I got. I was fuming really. I couldn't go back to sleep but naturally he was in blissful sleep within minutes of hurting me. So when 4:45 rolls around and his alarm goes off, he tries the unthinkable, cuddling with me! Of course I was cold as ice, for more than one reason.

Don later tells me it is at this point he is wondering why I am in such a bad mood. He can't figure out what is wrong but decides to hop into the shower. When he gets out, he notices his pillow, the one he was looking for in the middle of the night, across room on the floor. Now he is really puzzled and asks if I know why his pillow is on the floor on my side of the room? I snap back, "Yeah, I threw it on the floor after you told me not to cross the line!"

I can still see that fasicious grin as he began piecing this whole mess together in his mind.

Don to this day has no recollection of this episode. He swears he was asleep the entire time. I want you to know that I have yet to hear a complaint about my cold pigs again or an unkind tone with me in general. I am still his Queen and glad to say the honeymoon phase has yet to be phased out. Just for the record, that does go down as the maddest Don has ever made me. Funny now, not then.

Chicken Noodle Soup

2009-11-18T11:41:00.004-07:00

For all you Friends watchers out there, I have to say writing this post I heard Joey in my head saying, "Grandma's Chicken Salad". I know this isn't salad but... oh, never mind. I'm just going to take a moment to show the whole blogging world that I did it. I made homemade Chicken Noodle Soup, noodles and all!

Halloween Murder Mystery Night

2009-11-18T11:23:00.003-07:00

Last year I really wanted to host a murder mystery party and the day of the event we had to cancel. I was so disappointed because Don never had time off and the one chance we got, fell through. So this year I decide come heck or high water we are having a murder!

It was a Roman theme. Don was a Centurion and I was a Vestal Virgin. We invited his coworkers to play with us. It worked out well because Peter, the one in the green toga, shares the same birthday as Don...Oct 18th. So we called it a birthday murder. Caryn and Paul Vanderstein, some good friends from our single ward days, were good sports and came also. It was a load of fun!

Thanks for the fun memory!!

Fall is in the Air

2009-11-18T10:45:00.002-07:00

I have been terribly busy these past few months with life but wanted to post some pictures of the apartment fall decorations. I haven't really decorated much before for fall so these were all new ideas for me.

Because we are on a tight budget, I tried to get most of the decorations from Mother Nature. I don't know how well you can see from this picture but there are these unusual looking nuts at the base of this vase. I searched all over Salt Lake for a tree that dropped acorns, we have none. But we do have these strange trees, I believe there are only two in the whole town, that drop these green spiky balls. When the nuts are mature, they break out of these balls. I did notice I had some allergy problems after picking up the green spiky balls but didn't think much more of it until a few days later when I saw them on the news! Apparently, before those nuts mature, they have all these seeds inside that are great for a little "buzz". The reason this made the news was because two U of U students ate too many seeds before going to class. Long story short, they got an expensive trip to the ER instead of going to class.

I just wanted to point out the leaves. I picked them up at Memory Grove Park. Don and I had our engagement pictures there and that is where Don proposed to me. I decided to get leaves from that spot and put the leaves throughout the apartment.

Don's 34th Birthday

2009-11-03T10:03:00.005-07:00

The night of Don's birthday, just as we are drifting off into sleep it occured to me that we didn't have a single picture of him on his big day! No candles were blown out, no birthday song sang... What kind of a wife am I? His whole family was here from Idaho and my dad and stepmother were in town, and yet not one of us thought about it.

That morning, Don and his brothers went to the batting cages for some testosterone time, came back and we ate lunch and then we headed off for the zoo. Don and I have said for years that we were wanting to go and since we will be leaving for Florida soon we thought we better make it a priority. Plus, we had a few added bonuses, several babies were finally ready for the public. My favorite, the elephant.

Is she not adorable!

The giraffe is also a baby but because the mother went back inside by the time I could snap a photo, we have nothing to compare. He's still cute though.

Believe it or not, this is the only human in a picture that we have at the zoo! The camera was being passed around by people and nobody was paying too much attention to anything but the beasts! Sorry Don. We still love you!!

We did go back to the apartment for cake and ice cream and to open presents. Just that nobody sang to him. Lame.

Dentist

2009-09-23T11:51:00.008-06:00

This morning I went to the dentist. It was a fairly normal dentist appointment, nothing really special, but I couldn't help but think of my friend Bill Cosby. Most of us have seen Bill Cosby Presents and his clip about going to the dentist. Seeing smoke come from his mouth, him yelling fire at the dentist and nobody understanding him. The spit that never ends from the rinse bowl to his mouth... oh the wonderful images Bill paints!

Like Bill, I too had a memorable experience once. It was Christmas break 2002. I was home from college and mom had made me a dentist appointment. I remember I had to switch dentists that year. I can also remember at least in my minds eye, yelling out "Smoke" and "Fire" just like Bill. (In fact this happens EVERY time I go to the dentist. That just happened to be the first year I had those images because I had just seen the video weeks before.) Well, that year, as luck would have it, I had a cavity. Instead of setting up another appointment, we ended up filling my cavity that evening.

So lets recap, this is my first time with this dentist (no relationship of trust established) and now they are staying late to fill my cavity. That is AKA for lets run through this procedure as quickly as we can because lets face it, I'd rather be home with my family for dinner. The real question: Am I going like a lamb to the slaughter?

This is when the fun began. The hygientist was in a bit of a rush. She was doing all the prep work and messing around in my mouth, like they do. I remember her rinsing out my mouth with that water pick thing and then going in for the kill with a needle the size of Texas. If you couldn't tell, I didn't have much confidence in her abilities at this moment. And then it happened, just as she was injecting who knows what into my eyeball, I felt a pop followed by an odd sensation that moved down the right side of my body. It started at my shoulder and slid down my back. I knew right then and there I was temporarily paralyzed on the right side of my body! I knew it would take hours, maybe even days to wear off. I was terrified and the worst part of it was I could only scream the words "stop" and "paralyzed" inside... she had the Texas sized needle still in my mouth! If I moved, she could poke out my eyeball!

Finally, as she is pulling out the Texas sized needle, she looks at my eyes that are now the the size of Texas, and asks if I'm okay. Before she can get a response, she gasps! (That's usually not a good sign.) She flings her arm across my body that is lifeless in that chair and shuts off the water pick. The water pick! It is at that point that I put two and two together and start laughing. The water pick had somehow gotten stuck on and was spraying water on the back of my chair. It was the water that was running down my back and it was the water I was now sitting in. I hadn't wet my pants AND I could move the right side of my body!

I LOVE nice people

2009-09-15T14:14:00.005-06:00

Don was at work yesterday when the mail delivery man came by on his daily run. Yesterdays run was a little unusual though in that it included a package for Don from a Secret Admirer! It included this adorable card along with three letters. I don't know if you can read it but the card said: Enjoy an evening away from it all... (on the inside) Someone thinks you truly deserve a night to relax and enjoy! Then they included free movie tickets for two, a gift certificate at the Cheesecake Factory, and gift certificate to Blockbusters!

As if that wasn't enough, they put all of it in this cute basket with treats to die for! So if our Secret Admirer(s) follows our blog, we just want to thank you for the amazing package. You made our day and several fun date nights!

Wiped Out

2009-09-04T12:05:00.002-06:00

So August turned out to be a tough month for us. I got an infection and went on home IV's for ten days. We went to Chuck E Cheese the very next day and on Monday Don came home with the flu. This is a man who works 30+ hours even when he is sick and he was in bed two of those days. As luck has it, I also got the flu and went back on IV's after only a 5 day break! I am still running IV's at home and today is the first day I am starting to feel any better.

Unfortunately, we have missed several get togethers with many of you. We are so sad we missed all of the fun catching up. Please know we are thankful for your friendships and look forward to catching up as soon as possible!

Where a kid can be a kid

2009-08-21T20:29:00.006-06:00

There is this crazy phenomenon that exists in the children world. I don't know why or where it is written but every child needs to experience a few things in life such as snow or riding a bike. Don missed one of those rights of passage as a kid...Chuck E Cheese... so we decided to rectify that. Of course what good is Chuck E Cheese without being a kid? So we did the next best thing, we stole two.

We somehow convinced our friends that we could be trusted with their children. We had Joseph 3 years old and Joshua 2 years old. This is Joseph with us just before leaving for our adventure. Joshua isn't in the picture because he still wasn't too sure of us at this point.

Joseph meeting Chuck E Cheese between a soda break. I'm not sure he ate any pizza but he sure liked his root beer!

Joshua pretty much hating this Kmart ride. Not really his thing as you can tell.

He's more of the cowboy type. Poor kid. You can see the slide just behind his head in this picture. He loved that thing. Well, until we lost him in it for about 10 minutes. Don finally found him in one of the windows crying because he got stuck. Uncle Don climbed up there though and got him out. Thank You Turners for allowing us to all be kids for the day!

Next stop: the circus followed by Disney Land!

FYI

2009-08-13T13:53:00.002-06:00

Did you know.... When planing a family reunion, you should plan at least two years in advance! Who knew? Does anyone own a large cabin? =)

July 24th weekend

2009-07-28T14:40:00.002-06:00

So for those of you who don't know, the 24th of July is a pretty big deal in the state of Utah. It is the day the Mormon pioneers entered the Utah valley. In Utah it is a holiday and Don got it off this year! Something you might not know is the parade here in Salt Lake is the largest parade in the United States or that is what I have heard on the news the last two years. Sad as it is, I have never attended this parade and this year was no exception. We decide to get out of the crowds and head for the hills... Idaho style.

This was a trip of firsts though for me. One thing I have never done was actually visit Don's dad's grave site. Don (the Elder) died a couple of years before I was even in the picture. We got to his grave site just as the sun was setting. As unusual as it sounds, it was a nice, peaceful way to meet my father in-law.

On Friday we, visited with old high school friends, watched the new Harry Potter movie and Transformers, we went out to lunch, and we went to the Idaho Falls Temple. I have been to the Idaho Falls Temple many times but only when I was a student at Ricks. At that time I could only do baptisms so this was the first time I got to see this part of the Idaho Falls Temple. Really beautiful.

Saturday Don and his family did some landscaping while I caught up on some reading in the shade on the porch. Lazy I know. That evening we headed for West Yellowstone to go to the Playmill and saw Guys and Dolls performed. The Playmill uses actors and actresses from BYU-I and is a Davis family favorite playhouse. It was a great production. We had lots of fun.

These two pictures were taken just outside the Playmill. These are Don's younger brothers, Tom and Jim

Sunday was church in the morning and a nice BBQ lunch and then back on the road. We had a wonderful weekend with the Davis Clan! Thanks for all the laughs!!

Thanks Dad and Judy

2009-07-14T12:57:00.002-06:00

Don and I just wanted to thank you again for such a wonderful trip!

Twilight Fans...

2009-07-14T12:38:00.003-06:00

That's right for the fourth of July we went to the beach and along the way stopped at Forks for some lunch. While in town I had to snap some photos for those who are into the whole Bella/Edward saga.

the high school

As the sign says, the cute little hospital

The Cullins House

Bella's house

and of course Bella's truck.

I'm not sure what this town does really for work. It is a very small town but I can tell you the Twilight series has brought a lot of revenue in for this sleepy town. They have maps posted everywhere so that people can come take pictures and check out their claim to fame. They have gift shops just dedicated to Bella. It is kind of fun. If you're ever in the area, you'll have to stop in.

The Game Farm

2009-07-14T12:26:00.003-06:00

Not far from my dad's house is this game farm. The farm began who knows when with our dear friend Walt. These were the movie animals in the old Disney shows like Swiss Family Robinson. Anyway, these guys now live in Sequim, Washington along with their offspring and other injured animals at this game farm. This is a drive thru farm but you are allowed to feed the animals from the car. They are really pretty lax here but do have a few simple rules they ask you to follow like you have to stay in the car at all times, you can only feed them wheat bread (new rule), and you must keep moving forward in the designated areas. Sounds reasonable, I know, but not really to my father. He has always been the rule breaker. The class clown. The skip the directions kind of guy. So signs like no rocking the ferris wheel is ignored, in fact, it only encourages him.

So naturally when they give you the game farm rules, he throws the paper in the back seat with a grin on his face and yells, "Is everybody happy!". It's really not a question but tradition has it we all yell, "No". This is the part where the seat belts come off, the front seat becomes overcrowded, cameras get ready and I hope your wearing an extra pair of underwear because this will be a wet your pants kind of event...guaranteed.

My first experience with the farm was about 6 years ago. Holly and I were still single and in college and took a road trip to visit dad. The three of us loaded up in the car for this event. I was in the front seat and Holly in the back rotating from side to side. Now the two most eventful parts of this trip is always the bear and the notorious "dinky" buffalo (appropriately named by Addison several years ago). The bear are just cute but the buffalo are just plain demanding. The in your face demanding. Remember these animals are stage animals that condition very easily and have great memories. The buffalo just might be the keenest. This area is one of the many that you are supposed to keep moving in your car. It takes about 3 shakes to figure out why the rule. I kid you not when they see a car coming they run for it. The biggest one parks himself right in front of your car so you can't move forward if you've already stopped. The others have no problem getting their entire face in your front seat and let me tell you that tongue is about two and a half feet long. They drool like crazy in your lap and all you can do is yell at dad to move it as you throw another slice of bread at another hungry tongue. This is the appropriate time to wet your paints while dad laughs hysterically at your expense. This went on for several minutes until all fun and games for Pops comes to a sudden end. One of the buffalo moved to his side unaware to any of us. All I knew was the car suddenly lurched forward and my dad was wiping the side of his face. That two and a half foot long tongue nailed him right in the ear! That's right he got a wet willy from a dinky buffalo! I'm not sure where it is but we have a picture of his ear right after that with a puddle of drool and bread crumbs.

I don't know how it happened but Don had never been to the game farm until this trip. He too is now a game farm believer. Here are a few pictures of the goodness.

Don't they look like teddy bears?

This is one waving at us. How could you not give him another slice of bread?

Is this a Carabo? Anyway a hungry sucker.

The dinky buffalo coming at us!

I just had to show this because it's not too often I see a peacock all strutted out. It must have been peacock mating season because they were all feathers out and doing some crazy dancing. Pretty entertaining.

Day 7: Victoria, Canada and Seattle / cruise life

2009-07-14T11:55:00.006-06:00

Don and I decided not to get off the boat in Victoria. Several family members had told us it was a waste of time because nothing is open when the boat gets in. So instead we enjoyed some time on the boat. We watched a movie in the theater and ate lots of popcorn. We then had to walk a few laps around the boat to work off some extra calories.

We only ended up having one formal night because the first formal night was sea sick night. We wanted to have some professional pictures of us but following dinner we made other plans so we just asked other guests to take these for us.

Our recommendation for anyone going on a cruise, set some time and money aside for a couples massage. It was heaven. Following the massage, we could stay in this room as long as we wanted. It had a hot tub, sauna, shower, and my favorite, the heated tile seats. We were the last massage that night and had the place to ourselves.

Then to top off the evening, we had this as our view as we were relaxing!

I just had to throw in this last picture in because a cruise wouldn't be complete without all the little pampering details.

Day 6: Ketchikan

2009-07-14T11:37:00.004-06:00

Ketchikan was one of our favorite places. I wish we would have had more time here. This is again a view from the top of the boat looking down on the city.

In Ketchikan we did a lot of shopping and walking. This is a well known shopping area called Creek Street. Creek Street used to be the red light district part of town! Crazy considering how beautiful it is.

This is just another picture of Creek Street. We couldn't ever seem to get a good shot but the water is pretty clear in the creek. We did see a seal swimming in it and of course several fish.

Day 5: Sitka

2009-07-14T11:22:00.004-06:00

This is a view of Sitka's bay from the tether boat. Sitka was the only port that we had to take a number and wait our turn to load onto the smaller boats to get to shore. Kind of a fun, new adventure.

Sitka was more sight seeing than anything else. It had a history rich with the Native American traditions as well as Christianity. We saw several totem poles like this one

(Interupted by a little Mormonism. Way to pose Don!)

and we went through a Bishops house and a cathedral too. Really interesting.

On the way back to our boat we kept laughing about this drunk local guy who as Don called it was trying to hit on me while Don was using the restroom. I think he was just plastered. Regardless, it was a funny memory made in Sitka.

Day 4: E...... Arm Fjord

2009-07-14T10:57:00.004-06:00

Day 4 was different in that we stayed on the boat the whole day but it was really an excursion. We were originally scheduled to see Tracy Arm Fjord but because of the heat wave they had the week before, too much of the glacier melted and we couldn't get thru. We went down another bigger arm instead. It was still beautiful though.

As you can tell it was a pretty overcast, cold and rainy day. A pretty common day for this part of the country. It kind of adds to the scenery though.

I do wish we had thought to take a picture of me sitting on the top deck of the boat. Keeping in mind it is a cold wet afternoon and I freeze easily and we are outside for about 6 hours. I had on two shirts, a fleece jacket, my winter coat, a wool blanket, hat, gloves and still was cold in the middle of summer! A family sitting next to us brought back towels to sit on so I ended up wrapping a couple of towels around my feet too. Later in the week we ran into some Australians who let us know they had been laughing at my outfit the entire week!

I wish we had a better camera. The biggest most beautiful waterfalls cascaded down these mountains at every turn. We did see several bald eagles but we were still too far from the land to really get a good at any wildlife.

Day 3: Juneau

2009-07-14T10:25:00.005-06:00

We were feeling pretty good by day three. The motion sickness was gone once we got in the inside passage and in calmer seas. When we got off the boat we decided to take a bus tour of the city. Prior to this bus ride, I kept joking that I was going to talk really loud and ask where Sara Palin lives and where is Russia? As part of the tour we actually went past the governor's mansion, but she wasn't home. I would have taken a picture of it but we were going to0 fast. And that week is the week she resigned. Typical. This picture is on the other side of the port looking into Juneau and you can also see our boat.

Part of the tour took us to Mendenhall Glacier. I guess the week before it got into the 80's in Alaska, something almost unheard of, and the kids were dying of heat. Apparently, lots of kids were climbing the top of the glacier and sliding into the ice water! As for me, I'll stick to my winter coat on dry land.

The Red Dog Saloon is just a famous saloon in Juneau. The floor of the saloon is just sawdust. We were told the original owner did that intentionally because the gold diggers would come into the saloon after work and track in gold nuggets from the bottom of their shoes. The saloon owner would clean the floor once a week and make a nice profit off of their losses.

This is just a picture of me outside one of the shops chillin' with the locals.

Alaska... First Half

2009-07-08T11:31:00.004-06:00

I'm not sure which we were most excited about, Don being done with his internship year or going on vacation. It felt like eternity since we had last been on a vacation but we weren't sure what or where to go on a limited time and budget. We talked seriously about asking Grandma Bateman if we could use her RV and see the countryside in camper style. My dad had a much better idea though and in April had us on an Alaska bound cruise!

Our trip began so perfectly. Sitting right behind us on the plane were some old friends from the singles ward Don and I met. For those of you who know Dana and Ken Sowbe, need I really say more? For those of you you don't know who I am talking about you are honestly missing out. Ken was in our old bishopric and just might be the funniest person I have ever met. Truly a comedian in his own right. He had everyone around us on the plane laughing by the time we landed. Oh, how we love the Sowbes. It was so fun to catch up with them and hear about others in the old ward.

So we spent that night in Seattle and then boarded the ship around 1:30 that afternoon. This is a picture of us just before we boarded the Zaandam.

This is just a picture of us on the deck soaking up some sun before leaving the Seattle port.

This was Don's first cruise so of course we had to check everything out, including our stateroom. I kept finding Don at the same "post" while we were in our room and decided I need to take a picture of him. He was just so darn cute and glued to the ocean the whole time.

Day two on the ship was our rough day... literally. There wasn't a storm but the waves were these huge swells. I woke up that morning not feeling so well but thought I might feel better with a little food on my stomach. We decided to eat at the nice sit down restaurant because we still didn't have our "sea legs" and it is a bit of a trick to carry food and push an oxygen machine at the same time. We found at breakfast, I wasn't alone. Everyone at our table was sick, except the old navy vet. No kidding in the middle of this nice fancy breakfast some kid threw up! It was so loud and I know it came from her toes. I am really surprised more of us didn't follow. By this time Don was sick and we stayed the ENTIRE day in bed. Our drawers and doors kept flying open and items falling/sliding in our room waking us up from time to time. Our poor toilet and garbage can got more use that day. We later learned that the whole ship was sick, crew and all. They had to drain the pool because the top deck was getting waterlogged. Room service was so backed up that I had to wait on the phone a half hour at 9:00 that night just to talk to someone and then it took another 45 minutes because they were so busy and short on staff! It was bad.

Mom in town

2009-06-17T09:39:00.007-06:00

It has been a fun couple of weeks. Lots of good times with friends and family. My mom flew into town to add to the mix. We only had her for two weeks but I think we kept her busy. We started off with a mission farewell of one of my cousins, Jon. He is now in the flu infested Mission Training Center and I'm sure loving every minute of it. He will serve in the Pitsburg, Penn mission. Sorry, Jon I don't have any pictures to prove we were there.

Then because we rarely get to treat mom on mother's day, Lori and I decided to have a Girl's Day out. We went to the Temple and did lunch at a place called:

in Lehi right off Main Street. If you've never heard of it, your not alone. However, you should probably eat there at least once. It is more like a tribute to Porter Rockwell. Lots of cool antiques and the menu, well lets just say is very creative. I recommend trying one of their smoothies.

Just another picture of us at Porter's Place.

Mom, Elora and Jonathan (Lori's kids) and myself all went to the Humanitarian Center to do a little service and take a tour. I have to say, we were a little disappointed that the only service they had for us to do was quilt tying. I think we did more laughing than tying but we had a good time and that's all that matters, right?

The real highlight for my Mom and reason for coming out was the twins' Baptism (Lori's boys). It was fun to watch them be baptized. Both boys were grinning from ear to ear and when they get nervous laugh. We had a giggle fest in the font. It was cute. I've never seen a dad baptize two kids at the same time. They were even allowed to stand in the font while the other one was dunked. Who gets to do that?!

To top it off, we got tickets to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. Again, my camera was MIA for that event. And of course, what vacation is complete without some much needed shopping, lots of game playing, and too much eating! We had a great two weeks. Come back soon, ya hear!

You Can Bank On It

2009-06-16T06:24:00.005-06:00

Yesterday I went to the bank. I needed to cash a few checks and get a cashiers check so I had to forgo the drive up. I don't know what it is about going into a bank but don't you always feel like your every move is being watched for fraudulent activity; like the moment you walk in people are sizing you up as a possible crook? That's why I prefer the drive thru. How many drive up thefts do you see on the news?! None. The crooks always go in. So not only do I feel like people are scrutinizing me, I'm busy scrutinizing others as well. I can tell you the hippy young couple with dirty matted hair and the next guy who didn't speak a lick of english were potential crooks in my little mind so I can only imagine what they thought of the weird lady on oxygen!

Even though the teller is probably a 20 something college student who still lives at home, for some unknown reason he is a little intimidating. They raise the floor on their side of the desk I tell you. That way they look down on the customer. It is this intentional intimidating that adds to the fluster of it all. So I approach that cubical divider thing that they always make us stand at and tell the nice man what I have come for, all the while watching hippy couple make their transaction with suspicion. It is at this point that the teller passes me a pad of paper and pen and I quickly realize I only caught only a portion of what he said. You know how you retrieve words somehow that you never heard out of your head and all the while second guess your actions? This was one of those moments. The problem was, I could only retrieve the last part. BUT... I've got my pride and not going to look dumb in front of Mr 20 something so I pretend I catch it all and begin writing what I want for the cashiers check. A little flustered but nothing I can't fake my way thru. As I continue guessing what hippy couple is up to and writing who knows what in front of 20 something, the teller asks another question! As if I didn't have enough on my mind at the moment. Again, retrieve, retrieve and then I find myself automatically say in $20's, cuz that's what I always say. However, I notice out of the corner of my eye he isn't shuffling any money and when I look up at him he is grinning at me. That grin like he is the grinch that stole Christmas. It is at this point that I know I've got to come clean or get thrown into jail so I lean into the counter a bit more and with a slightly softer voice say, "You didn't ask how I wanted the cash did you?" The sad thing, he really DID ask that question it was just that my response was a bit silly for the dollar amount. He then proceeded to demonstrate how many $20's it would take to cover the amount on the check. I felt like I was back in grade school on some horrible story problem that everyone in the class gets but me. I just wanted to get out of this bank and with a little pride. So at the end of the day, like I meant all along, I ended up carrying a bunch of bills out of this bank with ironically no pride at all!

It's the Final Countdown

2009-06-15T11:17:00.003-06:00

TERMINATED

Not exactly the the most pleasant images come to mind, especially in this economy. Yet, there is a small group of us that can't wait for that word to take place and be liberated. When I dropped Don off at work this morning we joked that he would put in his 8 day notice this morning and never look back!

Decorating 101

2009-05-27T15:10:00.003-06:00

I wanted to show you some of the projects I have done around the house that were quick and cheap but just added to the new apartment. My creative juices were pretty well shot by this point and the copy cat in me came out.

This is an idea that I got from my friend at nannygoat.blogspot.com. You'll have to check out her tutorial on how to make it.

These next pictures... I am sorry but just turn your head again. Still no idea how to fix this problem. It is standing upright in iphoto. Any suggestions?

I got this idea from itsagirlthing1.blogspot.com and loved it. Simple yet classy. All it is is scrapbook paper, ribbon and a little fun!

This was a Robin original idea. Well, I don't think I was the first to come up with this idea but I've never seen it before. I had this mirror hanging over our couch in our last apartment but thought the vinyl added some "flavor" to the mirror. Additionally, we are still renting so I would like to take everything I put into this apartment to reuse some day.

Bed Part III

2009-05-25T09:02:00.006-06:00

So again, I felt like the bed needed some more dressing up. It was still too white and needed a bit more black. Up to this point the bed had just been trial and error on my part but this next idea I actually was inspired by other blog sites. Anyone who has checked out the price of throw pillows knows they cost way too much these days. A good price is 2/$30. There are lots of blog sites that have ideas how to make throw pillows for a lot cheeper but what I did was shop at one of my favorite stores Ross. I found a set four place mats for $7 on clearance. Make sure the place mat has two sides of fabric sewn together. All I did was unpick one end and then I sewed zippers in that end. I then went to IKEA and bought their inside throw pillows for $2 a pillow. Here is how mine turned out.

Bed part II

2009-05-21T10:55:00.003-06:00

So the headboard was done but the rest of the bed looked like it needed some help. I was reusing an old duvet cover and bed skirt that were a solid white and felt like they needed some black to tie into the headboard. My original idea was to take left over fabric from the headboard and sew it onto the skirt in panels.

But when I looked at it more closely, it really looked like it just needed some ribbon instead. I found toile ribbon online for $75 for 9 yards, no kidding. So I settled for a nice pattern that I bought at JoAnn Fabrics for $5 for 9 yards instead. I thought it would still go well with the toile pattern. Plus, HGTV says I don't need everything to be matchy, matchy.

This is what I ended up with on the bed skirt. Simple yet a touch of black to tie it all in. What do you think?

Upholstering

2009-05-20T20:13:00.012-06:00

I have been searching the blog craft world for several months now trying to find cute decorating ideas for this new apartment. Once I found something I liked, I would file it away and buy any items I might need for the project while they were on sale or I had a coupon. I thought I might share some of my projects that I have been doing these past couple of weeks. I thought I'd start with my headboard.

This is an old picture of my headboard two apartments ago. I know you can't see it very well but it is an upholstered green and gold headboard. It was cute but I was ready for a change. I decide to go with a black and white toile print this time. I got the fabric for $4 a yard but had one problem...

As you can see, the fabric was a horizontal print and it was just shy on both ends of the headboard. What the heck do you do in that situation? CRY. I seriously thought about this problem for weeks and came up with cording as my solution. First I tacked down the toile to the headboard. Once I had it on I could then eyeball and cut out more toile fabric to cover both ends. Just make sure the pattern is straight and going in the right direction. I then added the cording.

Honestly, I didn't even know what cording was called or that it came the way it did, I just knew what look I was going for and happened to run into it at the craft store while I was picking up zippers for another project. (I have seen cording now by the thread and zippers if your interested.) I'm no sewer so I think you say it bast stitch but maybe it is base stitch, I don't know, just look at the picture and stop laughing at me! I bast stitched the cording to the fabric and pinned it all on the headboard to make sure it fit right.

Once I knew I had it all lined up the way I wanted it, I unpinned it and sewed the cording onto the fabric sides. Once the sides were done, I bast stitched the sides back onto the headboard. (I'm sure there is a better way, not sure what that is though.) Because I just tacked the fabric onto the headboard initially, I was able to remove the entire toile fabric and complete the sewing on of the sides with the sewing machine. From there, it was a breeze. I just stapled the toile to the headboard and this is what I got...

Obviously, if I could make this, anyone with a 1st grade education could do this and probably do it better.

LOST ANYONE?!

2009-05-14T10:47:00.005-06:00

Who wants to talk Lost? Don worked until 11 last night so I have nobody to discuss last nights season finale with. Any takers?

You Never Know What's In Your Own Back Yard

2009-05-11T11:29:00.006-06:00

I have this hang up that if I don't have a picture as evidence I cannot blog about the event. To make maters worse, I am terrible when it comes to remembering the dang camera. Am I alone in this? Today I decided I would blog regardless. So as an official blog up-date we are moved into our new apartment. I say moved in but anyone who has moved knows all that really means is our stuff is on the premises but not necessarily out of all the boxes. I think I just move junk from one room to the next and then eventually to the DI pile. It is a denial thing.

Just a quick note on the DI thing though... I have a new theory. Work with me. I have been holding onto my skinny girl clothes for three years now and finally decided I will never be that small again. Give it up, DI em', and move on. So, I took them to DI...all but the jeans. The jeans I was saving to cut up to make a jean quilt. So Friday rolls around and I am in a rush to get out of the house but had no pants to wear. My jeans were all in the dryer taking forever to dry. So I slipped on some old jeans just to verify in my mind that there was no possible way to leave the house and miraculous thing happened, they actually fit! I put on another pair, same thing! I have four new jeans!! The moral of the story, if you want to get into your skinny clothes, give them away first. I hear this works for other things too. I understand if you give away all your baby stuff like crib, clothes, toys, etc. you get a surprise in about 5-8 years.

Anyway, this was supposed to be a blog not about DI but rather about Mothers Day. Well, not so much about moms but the actual day itself. See Don has had a really crummy week. It has been a zoo at the VA Hospital. As a result he has worked unspeakable hours. His on-call shift turned into a 36 hour shift and that has been a good example of his whole week. I have not had a husband for seven straight days. Yesterday was finally his day off. Wahoo!!! So we decided after our Sunday nap to check out what this condo place has to offer. We discovered we have a way nice paved bike trail just behind our complex! We walked it for about an hour and have no clue how far it goes or where it ends but we are so excited to have another workout option. We have been wanting to get a bicycle built for two for some time now and we just might have found our excuse.

One last tid bit for those who care and even know what I am talking about, we learned yesterday that Don passed his Step 3 Exam! We were a little concerned because he was sick with some temperature, chills, cough, sweats, who knows what bug he had during that exam. So we are thrilled that we don't have to pay another $600+ dollars to take it again. Sometimes you just have to be proud of your man!

Chapters

2009-05-09T11:44:00.005-06:00

I don't know if this is just me or something we all feel from time to time but do you ever have those days that you just feel like you are approaching the end of another chapter in your life and as it is coming to a close you cannot help but wonder what that chapter was all about. What was the message you were suposed to walk away with that has never matriculated? Will that chapter just end with no real conclusion? Will it end with a big bang? Will it leave me wanting more so I will turn the page?

You may be thinking stop analysing and just enjoy the ride. For me, that is the enjoying part. I enjoy reading the same way. I love to analyse every detail and speculate what is up ahead. I enjoy taking that same approach in life. I am a firm believer in history repeating itself if lessons go unlearned. So I ask myself again.... what is the take home message. What is your message?

My 33 Birthday/moving

2009-04-18T20:50:00.001-06:00

To be honest, this day was one of those "disasters waiting to happen" kind of birthdays. Not because I am concerned about getting too old or some mid-life crisis issues but because we had no choice but move across town on my birthday. I mean who moves on their birthday?! Just for the record, there was no pictures taken on this day. Not really one to remember.

It went pretty much as you expect. It took us about three hours to drive from one apartment to the next. Yes, we just moved across town BUT like every year we move, it was marathon day. Marathon day in Salt Lake City is a major event and they shut down every road going north, south, east, and west for runners. We literally could not find our way out of town. Swearing was involved and I'm still uncertain if that helped.

We had to get the truck unloaded and back to the U-Haul place by 4pm. We got to the apartment around 1pm and I remember our help to unload still hadn't arrived. Again, maddening. I ended up calling in last minute back up: my Uncle Ike and Uncle Boyd to help us.

To make the day more stressful, out of state relatives unexpectedly dropped in to say hello. Mind you they didn't intend to help unpack, just sit on my furniture with their smoke infested bodies and talk about crude things. After four hours of that crap, I literally opened the door and thanked them for coming. That was the most polite way this 33 year old knew how to handle the situation with smoke pouring out of my ears.

We did finally celebrate my birthday by going out to eat dinner at 10pm that night. We went to Texas Roadhouse but I think I was too tired to really eat. I am after all getting to be an old grumpy woman.

Sea of boxes

2009-04-09T11:07:00.006-06:00

Lots of people have asked and are confused as to when we are moving to Florida so I thought I should explain. We will not go to Florida until June 2010. In the meantime, we are moving Saturday, April 18th to downsize and save some money for next year. We are just moving to

another part of town. If you would like our new address, email me at:

donandrobindavis@gmail.com.) Don will work here at the hospital for another year doing research. We are excited to have one more year to be able to hang out with friends and family!

The Real Truth

2009-03-21T16:24:00.004-06:00

So my friend Kathryn has posted several cute blog entries about how she met and fell in love with her husband. Her husband even wrote a few entries himself. Today when I finished reading their story, it occurred to me that Don and I could never write one cohesive story about how we met and fell in love because obviously one of us was missing in both versions. I guess what I am saying is, I hope we are never star witnesses at a crime scene because we'd do more damage than good.

Every year of our marriage we have moved. Every move has required a new ward. With those familiar with LDS culture, you know that means a new introductory talk in sacrament meeting with every move. And every year, I always speak first. I'll never complain about going first, but Don always comes behind me and throws some curve ball. He just loves to "correct" a part of the "how we met" story or worse, and yes it has happened, a flat out lie over the pulpit!! Can you do that in church? I keep looking for that bolt of lightening.

He usually says something about how he had to pay me to go out with him or trick me or after months of begging I finally gave in... You get the gist. Our dating days get no better. He claims that I tried breaking up with him but he wouldn't let me. For the record: he tried to confess his undying love for me and I thought he was dumping me. The true story is, I broke down at the Pie (pizza place) and had to leave early because I was such a mess. I think it was all the tears that made him say the three magic words for the first time that night. I tell him it was the reverse psychology that I learned in college (I was a psych major) that finally got him.

He also will claim I grabbed his hand first, again not so. I have journal documented evidence. He'll report to his dying day that he loved me first, again not true. He might have said, "I love you" first but I knew it months before he even said it. We go round and round about this topic. The only thing we can agree on is this: Somehow it all worked out and we are happily married.

The End.

100 and counting...

2009-03-16T10:30:00.003-06:00

Today is a big day in the Davis household. Today marks the 100 day countdown until we are done with internal medicine forever! Congratulations Baby!!

Let's Talk Hair

2009-03-10T11:23:00.004-06:00

I don't know what it is about the topic of hair but I never get tired of it. I always perk up when a conversation lends itself in that direction and when it is time to get my hair done, I love to chat the entire time about products and maintenance. Perhaps I am searching for the perfect fix for my bad hair. Everyone knows it is too thin. (I have even recently purchased Rogaine and that is not a joke but probably a blog waiting to happen.) Additionally, it has body issues. If your hair is anything like mine, I have a lot body for about 10 minutes after I do my hair but by the end of the night, I look like a drowned rat. So, if I'm speaking your language... do I have a product for you! My hairdresser (Rebecca Bierwolf's sister) introduced it to me a few weeks ago. It is made by Aveda and is called Pure Abundance. It is about $25 for a small green bottle. Kind of hurts the pocket book but beauty is never natural and usually painful. (By the way, Don doesn't know how much I pay for beauty these days and he claims he doesn't want to know, so we have a good system going here... so Mum's the word.) Anyway, you part your hair where you want body and put this powder directly on the scalp. Let is set up for about 30 seconds. It has this cool sensation while it is working it's magic. Then you just rub your fingers back and forth over the solution and it pops right up. When your hair tries to die on you throughout the day, you just rub your scalp and instant body. If you don't wash your hair the next day, it still works! It does feel sticky in your hair but it sure beats the drowned rat look. You've got to try this!

2009-03-05T17:30:00.004-07:00

Oops, I forgot to put this picture in. This is the vase Don and I put together one night.

What's New?

2009-03-05T13:11:00.011-07:00

Better Things To Do?

As you all know, it has been a while since I last blogged. If you think I'm bad at this, ask me how long it has been since in made a journal entry. Don't ask. I've just been a bit busy. At least that is what I have been telling myself until I sat down today and tried to figure out just what was so busy about my life. So I will give you the same lame list I made myself.

1. Taxes. Do you know that my husband, according to the IRS, owns his own business? True and costly story.

2. Tried to download Quicken to a Mac. Twice. That's right. We bought Quicken to find out where our money goes every month and how we can save more. So, we bought the program and Turbo Tax at the same time for the $30 rebate. I promptly filled out the rebate form and cut the UPC labels and put it in the mailbox. The next day I tried to download it. Not Mac compatible! We couldn't exchange it for a full refund because I already cut out the UPC label and sent it off! Yep we bought a second one online. I think that is Quicken's way of letting me know where our money goes...right out the window! Anyone need Quicken for a PC?

3. Apartment hunting. It has become an all consuming task that looms over us and still no real potentials. We have moved four times since we have been married. We've only been married three years and this move will make move number five. Yes, we are running from the law but this time we will at least make it easier to find us since we will be going back to the hood.

4. Doctor's appointments. For those of you who don't already know, I am diabetic. It just goes with the transplant. Anyway, that is not new news. What is new, is our move to Florida. The best way I can fight off infection in the wet, moist climate that Florida will bring is to keep tight glucose levels. To tighten those up we have decided to invest in a glucose pump. I have been taking pump classes to learn more about different companies and will soon get to demo two that I can't decide on. It will take quite a bit of time initially to adjust to but in the long run should keep me healthier.

5. Back to the plant. Remember me telling you all about my plant in a previous blog? Well, I think she had what you might call a spontanous abortion. She seriously turned into the Jack and the Beanstalk plant. People kept saying she was twice the size of the tallest paper white they'd ever seen. (Finally, I had something tall. I was so proud.) And then, her bud that was about to bloom just never did and is now brown and about to fall off. I was hoping she got my genes and was just a late bloomer but I am sorry to say, I think she is dying. In the meantime, she is kind of getting out of control flopping everywhere so I tied her up yesterday. I'm about two shakes from forcing tulips.

6. I've enlisted in a few projects. I took some f our wedding gift decorative wall hangings and spruced them up with a little flair. That's what the pictures are of at the top. I wanted to show you a close up of the two because you couldn't really see the paper in the one pic. I will hang them above the guest bed some day.

The other picture of the candle in the vase was something Don and I put together one night. His mom gave us the vase and Don picked out the candle. We thought they looked good together so we added rocks and sand and tied a bow and we now have what I fondly call the lighthouse. It should look nice in Florida.

I have also been working on a project to collect all my recipes with their nutrition info and meal ideas in one rolodex and then girl it up all cute so I can leave on my countertop. I'll have to post it when I'm done.

I have also made a birthday cards for my family and addressed them in advance for easy mailing throughout the year. A task I have always wanted to be good at, but never been successful.

My on going project is doing my grandma's personal history. Grandma likes to come into town and we do lunch and then record until Don gets home and then we go out for dinner. I always walk away learning so much about her when she visits. I usually spend the next day, and I mean full day, typing up our conversations. I had no idea how much work this was going to really be but I have enjoyed it more than I ever expected. I highly recommend this project.

7. And then of course there is Lost. If your not a fan, it's not too late. I've got all the seasons on DVD and if your an Illinoisan that is no excuse either, Holly's got em. Get started now and you'll be done watching by about Oct 2012.

So as you can tell, my life is filled with the ever important and pressing issues of the day to day hub bub. I'll blog when I can.

Can you figure it out?

2009-02-01T14:06:00.006-07:00

Don is preparing for his final exam before he gets prescription writing privileges. As one way to prepare, he has subscribed to this program that sends him emails about once a week. These emails are specific case studies that examine the patent's personal history and physical, any lab work, vitals, additional testing such as x-rays, etc. that may lead a physician to a diagnoses. Don and I over the months have had a fun time trying to solve these case studies. Don almost always knows the answer and then teaches me the key elements I missed but I love it when I can figure it out on my own. I thought today you might like to play along. The catch, I'm the patient!

32yo female with a history of cystic fibrosis and a post lateral lung transplant 11 y ago. She recently has undergone 4 wks of home IV antibiotics as a result of pneumonia. Her drug regiment remained the same throughout the duration of her illness with the exception of prednisone up to 10mg from 5mg, cipro, merapinum IV. Her vitals as of friday in clinic were all in normal range and lung was clear on x-ray. Good breath sounds. No labs. Patient reports on sunday morning of unusual tenderness on left side of her back and a rash on her waistline. (See picture). She claims she has avoided sick people the past month. She has no known allergies to food or drugs. Some unusual itching sensations on face. No temperature.

Any guesses?

2009-02-01T13:59:00.002-07:00

Me vs. Green

2009-01-26T10:41:00.007-07:00

(Don't know why I cannot get this picture to stand up straight. It is upright on my computer. Any suggestions?)

Those that know me know that I seriously have a problem with plants. I cannot keep them alive to save my life. I wonder how on earth I can possibly keep a child alive if I cannot keep a plant alive! Since we have been married, and lets face it, it was an issue before we got married, I have killed several plants. Either I have under watered, over watered, they got weird bugs, or I "trimmed" the bad parts out and killed it. I think I have done it all and yet I keep going back for more. I am a plant killing warrior. So this year one of the sisters in Relief Society gave us all bulbs for Christmas. I have never forced a bulb in my life but it intrigued me. I made the lady explain how to do it AGAIN with Don standing by me so he could help me figure this out. Last week I finally planted the darn thing and can I just say...Wow! I can't keep my eyes off of it. I don't have to water it, mess with dirt, nothing but watch the magic. I find myself mesmerized in my own kitchen by something I planted!? Today I came home from a doctors appointment and roots had sprouted, and one of the leaves is busting out of its shell! Look out cruel winter, spring is blooming!!

Our Big Announcements

2009-01-19T12:13:00.003-07:00

This past Thursday we learned that Don got into a residency program in Ophthalmology (eyes) and we will be going to Jacksonville, Florida! Hence, the funky music that isn't really either of our style but it talks about Florida so there you go. I must admit I was a bit disapointed that we aren't closer to family and concerned about the hurricans but we are excited non the less. As a tribute to Florida, and to help me get more excited, I put together a top ten list of why we are excited to move to Florida and hung it on the door for Don before he got home that night. I thought I'd share the goodness.

Top Ten Things That Jacksonville Has To Offer...

1. Temperature ranges from 20-90 degrees year round. Still keep your seasons but not too cold, not too hot.
2. All call is from home.
3. 2.5 hours to Disney and not entirely sure how far from the fountain of youth.
4. Lots of Theaters. Wicked, Fiddler on the Roof, all the good ones are currently playing in Jacksonville.
5. We won't have to worry so much about dog do do when we have picnics in the park thanks to the alligators.
6. Jacksonville Mayo Clinic...need I say more?!
7. You will have a lighter year next year to enjoy life
8. Cruise ports are all over the place. We can drive instead of fly.
9. I found a realy great map of Jacksonville crime and locations...endless fun at our fingertips! (spotcrime.com and then put in your city. It shows you some really cool stuff from what kind of crime to who done it and dates. A must see.)
10. Jacksonville is affected by hurricanes every 3.04 years. Additionally, the average time between direct his is once every 11.42 years. The last direct his was-FAY 2008, Aug 21 and 22-YES!! So statistically we'll just have near misses.

You might have also noted that our title included announcements (plural). Friday was my 11-year lung transplant birthday. Tradition is that I go to the temple on or near that day to remember my donor and family. Don and I had a wonderful afternoon in the Salt Lake Temple and as always so greatful for the sacrifice and gift that we have been given.

2008-12-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

Three

2008-12-23T13:17:00.003-07:00

Today is one of those reflective days. Today marks the third anniversary of the single best day of my life. It wasn't the best day because I got presents or because I got a really nice dress or a party thrown in my behalf. It wasn't a great day because I felt like a fairy princess or because I ate cake. It was a great day because I was sealed to my husband for time and all eternity three years ago in a sleepy little town called Nauvoo, Illinois. What do I remember about that day? To be honest, not a whole lot. What I do remember is how cold it was on that day. I remember taking pictures before we got married because it would be too dark by the time we got out of the temple to take them. I remember lots of family and friends standing in the cold so that I could have this memory etched in my mind as well as my photo albulm for years to come. The memory that was etched most in my mind was how right and perfect everything felt. To know your at the right place, with the right person, at the right time...priceless.

With all that said, is there any part of your wedding, if you had to do over, you would change? I have two. The first took place at the very moment you are suposed to be the most romantic in every wedding. You know the part where they say, "You may now kiss the brinde? " I mean that is a lot of stress on a couple. For peat sakes you practice that part for months of how you will kiss and how it will look in a religous cerimony. So you know me, I messed it up! That's right. I don't even remember it, but have been told by several present that I did the unthinkable- I went in for the kill! I think it was still a "church kiss" but I really have no idea.

The second is even more scary. Girls hear me out, I don't care what they tell you, NEVER let a man put your wedding make up on no matter how many times he claims he has done it in the past. If you hear things like, " I know this looks dark, but trust me, you're wearing white", run away. I looked like a clown. He claimed it would look nice in the pictures... like I'm in a play. Needless to say when I saw my face in the temple, remember that was after I had my pictures taken, I immediately grabed kleenexes trying to get the top six layers off! That was the first time I had seen what I really looked like, again not a good idea Ladies!

Somehow, through all those scary layers of paint on my face, the man of my dreams still married me. We are now officially exiting our Honeymoon years and again, at least so far, he is still there. It has been a wonderful journey and I look forward to an eternity of anniversaries to come. I love you, Don.

Christmas Shoes Blues

2008-12-15T11:22:00.004-07:00

Don was kind of humoring when he read my blog the other day. He doesn't usually say anything negative about my work but he was a little taken back by the song choice. (I had playing Christmas Shoes by Newsong.) I believe his exact words were, "That is the worst Christmas song ever! It is way depressing. Can't we find something more happy?" We got a good laugh at my selection and then compromised on a few more days with this sappy song and then on to some "decent Christmas songs." So for those of you wondering what in the world I was smoking when I chose that song, hear me out.

This song reminds me of one of my most memorable Christmas experiences. A few Christmases ago my Grandpa Bateman was very sick and eventually passed away on Christmas Eve. (Ironically both of my grandpa's have passed away on that day, but I never met my dad's dad.) Don and I were on our way to Idaho for the holidays that year when we got the call to come quick. When we arrived, grandpa had passed away about 10 min prior to our arrival. We were one of the first family members to arrive but soon we became part of the Bateman parade. All of us, my guess would be about 40 of us, crammed into this small room with grandpa. There was lots of tears as well as laughs. Lots of memories shared that night. What I remember most about that experience was how greatful I was to know that grandpa was in a better place. That place was made possible because of the Atonement of Christ. I was able to feel a calm peace that grandpa was happy and where he was suposed to be for Christmas, perhaps with his parents and siblings. It seamed for that moment in time all was right in life. I have often thought back to that day as a wonderful Christmas memory. We all had the true meaning of Christmas in mind that year. May you all have a meaningful Christmas, without a death of course, this holiday season!

Christmas Idea...

2008-12-10T16:50:00.002-07:00

Don and I have been trying to think of things we could do on his vacation time next week that would be fairly inexpensive and help us get into the Christmas mood. I began searching the internet and came across this website, BEANELF.org. Have you ever wondered what the post office does with letters mailed to Santa Clause? Well, apparently, they send all those letters to your city's main post office. You can contact the post office and go through those letters and fulfill as many of them as you'd like. You act as Santa's helpers and drop them off to kids in need at their home. (The post office sorts the mail for you so that you know what letters are addressed in less fortunate areas.) I contacted our local post office and unfortunately, because of security reasons, our city requires that you go through an organization, like the Boy Scouts. I'm trying to find out if I can get the YM in our ward to go and then we'll just try and go with them. Anyway, Don and I thought it sounded like a fun idea and I thought I'd pass it on.

2008-12-10T16:13:00.002-07:00

Like many of you, we have been busy this holiday season seeing lots of family and loved ones and trying to keep up with the day to day tasks of life. Don had several interviews in the midwest area so I flew home for ten days to hang out with my family. I decided to make a top ten list of my favorite activities/things I did while in Illinois. (they are in no particular order)

1. visit with family
2. see the nieces and nephews perform a talent show after dinner
3. play games
4. eating horseshoes (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, you need to get informed. Your missing some high cholestrol.)
5. Lincoln sites
6. old ward (church) members and community projects
7. early Thanksgiving
8. watching Cameron get baptized
9. driving around town to see how she has grown since I've last seen her
10. No, I did not see the govenor. He was too busy in Chicago hanging out with his politically corrupt crowd to be doing any productive work at the state capital. We are so proud of him. =)

On a happier note, Don is almost done with his Ophthalmology interviews. He has just one more next week in Omaha! He has really been blessed during the entire interview process. I know that no matter where we end up, even if that be in Pathology, that the Lord has placed us there for a reason. It has been a real testimony builder for us to see him literally directing our path.

One additional note, I decided to skip the Christmas card thing this year. I figure that most people we would send one to reads our blog anyway. Plus, it's a bit cheaper and who can't use some extra change this year?!

Can I just stand on my political box for two shakes

2008-11-08T11:55:00.006-07:00

I am in no way a political guru. I watch the news when I can, I try to stay informed, I even do some research on the internet to choose who I want to vote for, but I will never profess that I am a political know-it-all. I will say this, I am an American. I am proud of that and thankful for the freedoms that affords. I am grateful to live in democracy. I am grateful that I got to vote for a president to run this great country. It doesn't matter who I voted for, that is not the point of this blog. My point is this, I watched the polls roll in Tuesday, like many of you, and I noticed a scary trend. Even days latter, I see the same issue and nobody is talking about it. Every person I saw interviewed talked about how exciting it is to have a black man in office. How they never thought they'd see this in their lifetime. I agree, what an honor to be a part of. However, I have YET to hear how excited they are because he is qualified. The only thing I hear, is how great it is that we have finally turned the racist tide. But I cannot help but ask, did we just put a black man in office because of his skin color? Did we vote in someone because we really wanted to prove to ourselves and to our nation that color doesn't matter? I don't know. I hope we, as a country are bigger than any color and saw the candidates for what they would bring to the position. I just can't help but ask, how racist are we?

With that said, I decided months ago, that no matter who was put into office, it was my responsibility to now support them. That doesn't mean I have to agree with everything, but give them the respect they deserve for serving my country in this capacity. May God continue to bless and watch over this great country as well as our government officials.

Another up-date

2008-11-07T12:56:00.002-07:00

We now have been offered 9 ophthalmology interviews, but one we had to deny because of scheduling problems, and 2 pathology! We are thrilled, thrilled, thrilled!! His first interview is on Tuesday. If anyone would like to pray for us, I don't think either one of us would mind.

What a Day...

2008-10-29T19:58:00.003-06:00

You know those secrets you tuck away in that part of your brain that only you, yourself knows because you'd feel silly if you actually shared it with anyone? I think if we are honest with ourselves and think long enough, we all have them. This is one of those secrets that I had actually forced myself to forget about but today it submerged from my unconscious to my conscious. Before I reveal my long lost secret, I must tell you about my day. It started about 2 am. We awoke to a awful alarm sound. It was one of those screeching sounds that pulls you out of your sleep so quickly that you are dizzy with uncertainty about everything. When I finally understood what that noise was, I ran into the front room as fast as I could without running into a door or wall. (I walk a bit tipsy in these situations, like I need a V8.) The noise was my oxygen concentrator. As a safety feature, it makes this horrible sound when turned off unexpectedly by power outages. We've been in this situation a few times before and quickly switched to my portable tanks and went back to sleep. When Don got up for the day, the power had returned and it was business as usual in the Davis household. We left our apartment on time to head for the hospital, hopped into the elevator and that is where my story really begins. In one of the most unexpected places, the elevator. (We now know that the elevator has to be serviced every time the power goes out.) We were supposed to go down to the second floor but it skipped the second floor and took us all the way down to the basement and then shut off everything! No buttons would light up, no movement, no nothing. Here we were stuck in an elevator at 5:30 am! My silly secret, I always thought it would make a good story if I met my husband in an elevator that was stuck. Wouldn't it be a good tell when people ask, "How did you meet"? That is something nobody would forget. So, today several hours after the incident, it "Don-ed" on me that in some small way, today, my wish became reality. Today, I got stuck in an elevator with the man of my dreams!

Interview Up-date

2008-10-27T12:35:00.002-06:00

Since I last blogged we have gotten several more interviews. They are:

Ophthalmology
U of Missouri (Columbia)
U of Nebraska (Omaha)

Pathology
Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn)

Don's 33 B-day!

2008-10-26T07:16:00.014-06:00

Sorry, I don't know how to turn the picture, just twist your head. I wanted to post Don's Birthday earlier but every time I tried the blog people were too bogged down. Anyway, for Don's Birthday his brother, Tom, came down the night before to help celebrate. I made him his favorite cake, Patio Cake, and made lots of fun signs as you can see. This is the one I posted on our front door. I also put several throughout the apartment complex and elevator for fun. That night we went to Body World. If you haven't been yet, it is a must see but I won't go again on a weekend night. For those of you who are thinking what the heck is Body World you will have to see their quick video. I don't understand how they do it but they preserve these bodies by injecting stuff in the veins, muscles, organs, arteries, etc. and then display them for people to see. Unfortunately, I can't get the video to work either but I recommend googleing Body World Exposition: Part 2 or 3. You have to see these bodies to believe it. Pretty wild stuff.

More Blessings

2008-10-22T10:01:00.003-06:00

I am trying harder to recognize the blessings the Lord has given us. For those of you who remember President Eyering's talk a few years ago about how he has kept a journal of blessings while his family was young up to the present day and how fun it has been to look back at. I have been wanting to do that as well. So here is another entry of blessings. First, Don was on call the night before, which means no sleep because he is in the cardiac ICU. Every night he has to do at least one and usually multiple codes. (That is code for CPR, crash cart business) Anyway, he actually had a fairly peaceful night and got three hours of sleep in! So he comes home yesterday and says, "what do you want to do tonight?" (Usually all he can do is eat and sleep and get up for the next morning so I'm shocked and speechless.) We end up running to the mall to get some interview items. First on the agenda was two new shirts. We have a favorite at Nordstroms called Gold Label. If you haven't already seen me advertise on other blogs, here we go. Gold Label shirts won't wrinkle! I mean it, I can pull clothes out of the dryer, throw them on the bed and fold them hours later and never iron! It wears unbelievably well, perhaps because I'm not ironing it, and he always gets compliments when he wears it. He's had the shirt a year, and it still looks new. (Until recently when he ripped it at work on something medal.) The drawback is these shirts are a little pricey. $50 bucks a pop and we are poor, right. So last night we go in to buy two of these things and the salesman informs us after we pick up the shirts that tonight they are on sale for buy one get one half off! Yes. Then our next item, new ties. Again we think we need two in case he gets something on one during an interview. Do you know ties cost more than shirts?! (Yeah, I accidently picked one for $120!) Needless to say it went back and we found two fairly modest ties, and again they were on sale for buy one get one half price. Our last stop, Penneys for dress shoes. Again, many hours of fine shopping has led us to Penneys for a specific brand and style of dress shoe. We pick out the shoe and as Don goes to pay, the guy ringing us up says oh, here is a coupon and gives us $10 off! We got all these items in an hour and 15 minutes. That has to be a new record considering Penneys and Nordstroms aren't even in the same mall. So today I feel blessed that we were able to get all this done in one last minute evening and at a price that was more affordable. Love it!

(This is an addition I added after posting the blog but thought it most appropriate to be placed here.)

There is a good reason why we knew just where and what we were interested in buying for Don's interviews. Our first year of interviews, as mentioned earlier was a flop. Not because of something Don did but because of circumstances out of his control. I am sure we will one day understand the reason behind the mix up and be thankful. That year, we not only had one mix up though. The second mix up was just about as catastrophic.

Don did get one interview that year in ophthalmology, I believe it was in Philly at Temple University. We really wanted him to look sharp for his interview because we had one shot at this. So when we went shopping for suits, we looked everywhere. We wanted to see high end suits to crappy missionary suits and get a feel for what the difference in quality really was. We found ourselves shopping in the mid to higher end suits but struggled finding one that we liked that also fit. Nordstroms had a nice solution. They had the suit we liked (Hart Shaffner and Marx) and for the same price we could custom order it. We picked out our own fabric, it was measured to fit him perfectly, and all within about three weeks time. When we ordered the suit, we knew we were going to get the suit just about a week before his interview. Close but doable.

I got a call from Nordstroms about three weeks later saying the suit was in and ready to be picked up. Both Don and I were eager to try it on and be done with this process of the interview. We get there, the lady pulls the suit out of the bag, and it is NOT the suit we ordered. The fabric was beyond horrible. It looked like, I am sorry, a black pimp suit. It was in no way conservative. I told the lady that is not the suit that we ordered and she insisted it was and that it was not returnable. Don tried it on and it was all I could do but not cry. That suit cost us $600 and he couldn't even wear it!

That night I don't think I slept I was so mad. I cried most of that night as well. The following morning I got a call from the Nordstrom lady saying she rechecked some numbers and I was right, and the suit company had made the error. Their solution, they would take 30% off the price of the nasty pimp suit! Oh, h*%$$ no billy! In no way was I going to keep this suit in my closet. It was really that nasty. Their compromise was not to sew like the wind and get me my suit in two days, it was pick out another suit we have in stock and we will taylor it for you pronto, no discount! Needless to say, we will never go thru Nordstroms for a suit again. They do make nice dress shirts and ties though.

The real kicker: That lady had the audacity not one year but two, to call Don's cell phone to ask if we wanted to buy another suit!

Interview Season

2008-10-16T10:19:00.009-06:00

Don might be a little embarrassed by me writing a blog about this, but I'm too excited. For those of you who don't know our story of getting into a residency program, now is your chance. Don really worked hard all in medical school. He did very well and decided to apply to a program that is very competitive in medicine-ophthalmology. Our first year we put in our application and waited to hear back from schools. And we waited and waited only to find out too late that one of his letters of recommendation suddenly went MIA! The doctor swore he did it and turned it in, and others told Don it was in, but somehow it went missing and we missed all our deadlines. That was our first blow. Don decided to do a fellowship in ophthalmology to boost his application further while waiting another year to apply. We put in our application again, and I must say I was feeling fairly optimistic. I mean how many applicants have that kind of application, right? For some unknown reason to everyone, Don only got 4 interviews. (To match in ophthalmology they say you need statistically about 7 to get in.) So again, we didn't get in. This is our last year to apply. The odds are stacked against you every time you apply so I really haven't expected much. To complicate matters, you know Don's work schedule as an intern... he has no time to interview. He does have one week of vacation though. we guessed a week around interview season as his vacation time but all of our interviews in the past have been at least a few weeks apart. The week we picked, we didn't get, and they gave us some other random week. Today Don got his 4th interview. All four interviews are within a week. Can you guess what week? It has brought tears to my eyes as more interviews come in and with each one an amazing time for us. I know the Lord is aware of us and our needs and loves to bless his children.

Our 4 interviews so far are:
Texas Tech
Ohio State
University of Florida
Kansas University

P.S. Don is also applying to Pathology as a second option this year. He got his first interview today for Pathology at the University of Utah! Go Don!!

I Did It!!!

2008-10-11T14:58:00.001-06:00

I feel like all my countless hours, though useless, have finally paid off! I am back in the blogging game and have figured out how to get things posted on this thing. So with no further ado, if you don't know who Brian Reagan is, you have got to get in the know. Apparently, he was so last week but I just discovered him myself. Remember the day I cranked up the radio in the car? Just before that song came on, there was a clip of him talking about spelling bees. (Anyone who knows me, knows I seriously cannot spel so the man was speaking my language). I You Tubed him a couple of days later and then stumbled upon him one weekend on TV. I think he has to be one of the funniest comedians out there. So, naturally I decided to post him on my blog. The second video is just a funny video of a 911 call that my dad sent me a few weeks ago that I found funny. Enjoy!

Sleeping like a baby

2008-10-11T12:36:00.003-06:00

We live by a park. Yesterday, Don and I watched this kid, about 3, cross the street in a stroller and totally unaware of any of it. This kid was about 3 sizes too big for the stroller and his head was hanging out the side. Perhaps he was dead. We commented on how nice it would still be to fall asleep any time, any place you wanted and someone would just carry/push you anywhere. Then we got on the topic of sleeping positions. Why is it that children can sleep in ANY position, and I think Jackie has a fine example of that on her blog, and not get sore? In the meantime, I've had this neck cramp for about 5 days because of a pillow issue. Don has been massaging my neck, I put heat on it, I went out and bought a new pillow (again) and still it's kinked. What's up with that? Maybe I should borrow my neighbors stroller and try sleeping in it tonight.

Where is Ann Landers?

2008-10-09T11:50:00.008-06:00

Dear Wise One,

I know it has been forever since I last blogged but I have some excuses, one of them not being that my life is way too busy for such silly things. I simply have issues. I feel like I am sitting around in a circle surrounded by women and announcing my name and admitting I have a blogging problem. Unfortunately, it is true. This is my dilemma. A few weeks ago, Don and I took his Mom and brother, Jim, to Thanksgiving Point to the gardens. Of course I took my camera to blog such a rare occasion. That turned out to be the problem. You see I have this nifty bag that my oxygen fits into and then I can carry the beast on my back. Not thinking things through, I put the camera in my bag so I'd always have it. Unfortunately when I pulled out the camera to take a picture, the screen was smashed in by the tank. So, no more pictures to blog. That's okay because we always have the internet to spice blogs up. I have spent countless hours trying to download pictures from the web and You Tube on this blog and cannot do it! When I first blogged, you remember I had some You Tube on here but alas the blogging world has changed their program since I started and I am back to square one.

So this is a shout out to anyone who can hear me within the confines of this blogging world, CAN ANYONE HELP ME?!

Thanks,
Kitty Carial (or however Cindy Brady signed her Ann Lander letter)

Grocery Shopping

2008-09-15T19:57:00.005-06:00

So today I did something that is very routine for most of us...grocery shopping. It occured to me today that my grocery shopping experiences really have not changed all that much since I lived in Illinois and that is kind of a let down. Let me tell you why. For those of you who live in Illinois, you will know exactly what I am talking about when I mention the word ALDI. For those of you not familar with ALDI, let me paint a visual. This is a small grocery store with no shelves that seperate isles, just food inside boxes. In fact, as you shop, you collect these boxes because that is your grocery bag when you leave. Your cart that you wheel into the store, you bought four a quarter. You do get your quarter back when you return the cart from the parking lot back to the front of the store. The floor is always that yellow tile that looks like it came out of an old McDondonalds resturaunt and it is always dirty. The food is almost all ALDI brand, few name brand items. You know the canned food is usually decent but would really be playing Russian Roulette with the produce, in fact it is rare to see produce or meat because of that very reason. I have never seen more than one employee at a time in that store. As you can imagine, the lines to check out are long but amazingly don't take too long to check out. You might be asking how is that? Because these employees have the best job in the world. They hire only people with fast arms that throw your food, and I mean throw your food into your paid cart. Yes your cans have dents and yes you may have smashed bread but she's quick. Once you pay with cash, I think they might allow debt cards now, you can go through your cart and itemize the damage. They have a nice orange counter the length of the store just for that purpose. (Well, I think it is really to organize your food into your free boxes.) The real fun of ALDI is that they always attract the best crowds. Why shop ALDI? Because the prices are unbelievably cheep.

With that said, I am still cheep when it comes to groceries. You'd think my modo was, "Food before Safety". Utah has no ALDI but our local Wal-Mart is a close second. It is in a particularly bad neighborhood, I know because I just moved from it. This Wal-Mart is one you don't want to be in after dark, or at least not on purpose. And if you are, prepare for an education. It doesn't run anything really like ALDI, in fact the only common denominators is that they both have dirty floors all the time, house scary people and have the cheapest food in town. In addition, Wal-Mart has no business selling produce but they do it anyway. Don and I like to time the checker to see how long we wait in line. Our average wait is 45 minutes. I have seen things in this Wal-Mart I can't even write on blogs because it is so foul. This I can tell you this though, theft is a way of life for many of these folks. No kidding I watched a guy steal a bike a few months ago. That's right. He went to the bike section, got on the bike and rode around the store for a couple of minutes. I watched him ride it right out the door and the greeter guy ALMOST said something to him! So I guess I've become a little paranoid. Last week I noted three suspesous characters in the produce section. (I was busy picking out roten potatoes, that is not a joke, when I spoted them.) I wasn't sure if they worked there because they were all in street attair and speaking some other language. You know when you just get a bad feeling about a person, this was one of those moments. I made a mental note when they had gone around the corner. A few minutes had passed and saw the arm of one of them holding a gun! Just as I was to hit the deck, and I was two shakes from being on that dirty floor, I saw him scan something with his "gun". That was my cue, I knew it was time to get in line for 45 minutes.