Monday, December 7, 2009

Black Friday

So life gets so busy that I find it hard to take time to blog. So I am finally getting around to blogging about Thanksgiving and black Friday. Since I haven't uploaded my Thanksgiving pictures yet, I will blog about black Friday.

Ever since I met Erik, I have learned what it is like to experience Black Friday on a yearly basis. I had never even been to black Friday before that. All the relatives pick their sales and camp out to get good deals. That's what the Gibby's(Erik's mom's side) thrive on anyway, getting a good deal, and sales. Black Friday was insane madness. Like always, there were millions of people, waiting in line, in freezing temperatures, to get really great deals.

Erik's mom Lark, and I went to the mod bod sale at the old Office Max on University Parkway. When we got there, it looked like the end of the line was all the way back at the Toys R Us. There were people in tents, and it was obvious that they had been there for a day or two. We thought that the line was insane for a mod bod sale. So we asked about the line, and found out that we were in the Toys R Us line. It turns out there were several lines for all the stores in the complex. So we finally got in the right line, and waited. People kept coming and eventually lines started to merge into each other. We were all piled on top of each other. It was insane!

At 11pm they started letting people in to the Mod Bod sale. The line was moving towards the door, and all of a sudden, people started running! It turned into mass chaos. I was almost trampled and smashed into a couple of doors. It was crazy. Once we got inside there was plenty of room though, so we went crazy. We ran and grabbed what ever we could find and then sorted through our piles in a corner later, when we couldn't carry anymore. After 2 hours we had what we wanted. We came away with a pretty good haul.

The next morning I went to the Sexy Modest black Friday sale. There wasn't really a line, but the store was full of women! The first 150 people to walk through the door got to reach into a stocking and draw a coupon or gift certificate. I drew a 10% off coupon. I was hoping to get one of the $50 gift certificates, but I guess 10% off was better than nothing. I ended up buying two pairs of jeans and a couple of sweaters. Here are all the pictures from the craziness.

Getting ready to leave for Black Friday

Lark waiting in line

Me waiting in Line

The view of the lines from behind us.

The view of the lines ahead of us.

My spoils. A couple sweaters, 2 pair of jeans, 5 shirts, two tank tops, and a swimming suit. Some of the stuff is for me, and some of them are Christmas presents.

Erik's brother Cody, and the cousins Jennica, Race, and Graden camping out at Best Buy. They were there for two days and were at the front of the line. They scored all of the good deals. They bought everything on Race's credit card, and then turned around and sold it on e-bay and made a big profit. Such a good idea! Erik's side of the family are such entrepreneurs. I love black Friday! It is one of the funnest parts of Thanksgiving.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Halloween Fun!

This year I decided to be a pirate for Halloween after I found the most awesome pirate costume. I spent all month putting it together and modifying it to make it not slutty like it was intended to be by it's designers. I think it turned out rather well. Erik decided to be an Animator for Halloween, or in other words he was lame sauce and didn't dress up. Here are the pictures from the Halloween dance at the Downtown Stomp. We had lot's of fun. There was a crazy Jack and Jill and a costume contest. I was a close second in both. Erik danced rather well too. We actually got to dance together in one round of the jack and jill. We had fun stabbing other competitors with my sword, and Erik tried to take my head off a few times, till I made him walk the plank. haha I love Halloween dances. They are the funnest!

If ye don't like my costume, I will make ye walk the plank Arrrrr!!!!

Erik's Computer Animator Costume....

Displaying my costume for the costume contest. I took second place. You can't really beat a pregnant nun and a catholic priest. Especially when the nun is really pregnant.

The expecting couple. Haha

Getting ready to pillage and plunder some villages! Arrrrrr

Emily and John getting their dance on at the beginning of the night.

Two of my favorite dancers Sydney and Aly!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

My New Job!

I just got hired at the new Aspen Ridge transitional rehabilitation facility in Orem as one of thier occupational therapists. It is a 24 bed facility meant for people who are transitioning from the hospital home and just need a few weeks to a month of rehabilitation. I am excited because it is super nice, and the patient's will be higher level, and won't be so hard to transfer in and out of wheelchairs. They will all make good progress and be able to go home. I will see mostly ortho patients who have had hip or knee replacements, pelvic fractures, arm and shoulder fractures, hip fractures, etc. I will get to work with an OT I did my clinicals with who is super amazing andso much fun. I start on the 20th of October. I am so excited! Here are some pictures of the place I will be working:)




The Rehab Gym! Isn't it nice:)


This is what the patient's rooms will look like. They are all private rooms with their own bathroom and shower. If this doesn't attract good clientele, I don't know what will.


This is much nicer than the dinning room my patients eat in at the skilled nursing facility I am currently at. It is set up to have a more restaurant feel. The patient's get to choose from a menu and everything.

Pretty nice ehhh! It is way more elegant than your typical skilled nursing facility. It will be such a great place to work. I know my patients will be getting first rate care, because they have hired an amazing staff. I am also excited because I also will get to do a little bit of home health on the side and follow a few of my patients home. It is nice because each visit (which is usually only a half hour to hour) pays double my hourly wage in the clinic. So it will help me pay off my loans quicker and save for a rainy day. So that is my new job. Pretty exciting eehhhh

My new job means we are moving to Lehi so we will be halfway between mine and Erik's work. We are moving in to a new 3 bed 2 bath ground floor condo that is so nice! I will post some pictures as soon as we get moved in, and blog about the move. So anyway that is my new job.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

General Conference

So Erik and I really enjoyed general conference this weekend. It was amazing! There were so many good talks that it was hard to pick one that we liked the most.

One of the talks that really impressed me was President Monson's talk about service. I thought it was amazing that when asked what he wanted for his Birthday, he responded by saying that he wanted the members to do an act of service for some one in need. It was amazing to me how many people responded with so many kind deeds. It was nice to hear about all the service people did for each other. Christ spent most of his days ministering to others in need, and it reminded me that I need to spend more of my time serving. The times I have been the most happy in my life was when I was serving others.

President Monsen is such a great example of the words he spoke. He has spent his whole life helping the needy, the widowed, and those who are sick. It turns out that he has a route of nursing homes he visits on Sundays throughout the year. Every 6 months he comes to the skilled nursing facility I work at, and visits all the residents and attends the Sunday meeting. The next day in therapy all the patients are buzzing about President Monson's visit, and how he talked to them, and shook their hand. They cherish it so much, especially since they are all having such a hard time in their lives. President Monson is truly an example of the Master.

Another talk that Erik and I really liked was Elder Todd Christopherson's talk about having a moral society. I liked the example he gave with the housing market and the dishonesty that put it in the state that it is in. I thought it was interesting and true when he said that more laws wouldn't help us nearly as much as having a society with moral standards, because people would always find a way to circumvent laws. You can't create a law for every situation. It is nice to hear how important moral values such as honesty, integrity, and chastity are since we tend to live in a society that tries to minimize their importance and altogether discount them.

We also liked Elder Holland's talk about the Book of Mormon. He was so bold in declaring the truthfulness of the book of Mormon, that there was no way you couldn't know how he stood on that matter. It made me want to have more courage and be as bold as he is in testifying about the truthfulness of the gospel and book of Mormon. I often time worry too much about what other people think. I have a new goal to be bold like Elder Holland in declaring what I believe.

Anyway those were some of the highlights of our favorites. There were so many good talks, we can't wait for them to come out in print so we can read them.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Bear Lake Triathlon

So I am a slacker and haven't had time to blog. So much has happened in the last month. I got a new job in Orem, finished my tri, and am now we are moving to Lehi. The Tri went rather well, and I had no injuries. I finished in an hour and 52 minutes and 3 seconds. Erik was there the whole way and was such a great support. Now we are getting ready for the Lake Powell Tri in two weeks. Here are some pics from the Bear Lake triathlon for your enjoyment.
























Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Triathlon Training and the added benefits.

As most of you know, I have been training for a triathlon pretty much all summer. P90X has been put on hold until the off season since it is very time consuming. I will be participating in two Tri's this year, one this weekend at Bear Lake, and one team tri Oct. 17th at Lake Powell with Erik. They will both be sprint distances, and I am very excited about them. It has been a lot of hard work, and I have been worn out, but so worth it. Erik has been so supportive with all my training and the seemingly billions of dollars it costs to get all the gear for one these things. He has also been running in order to prepare for his portion of the Lake Powell Tri. He hates running, so that is some serious dedication.

I am a little worried about the Tri this weekend since I did a 32 mile bike ride out to the Great Salt Lake last Friday and had some problems. My calf cramped up around mile 22 and I had to get off my bike and stretch for a half hour in order to make it the last 10 miles back. Even then, I could only bike back at a measly 13 miles an hour without causing another cramp episode. Ever since then, the calves have been in overdrive. I have done everything I can think of to fix them including: heat, massage, potassium pills, vitamin E, pills, banannas, electrolyte pills, etc. Kim was nice enough to work on them for me at work today to get them back to normal. Tomorrow we are going to hook them up to e-stim and fatigue the muscles so we can get the rest of the knots out. I am hoping that helps, because I have invested way too much money into the tri to not be able to do it. I basically loose $400 this weekend if I don't partipate, so I am pretty motivated to get my calves back to normal. They are getting better though, so I have high hopes still.

The training has been great for my back though. The swimming has improved my back muscles so much that I don't get any sciatic pain anymore and I can lift heavy things a lot easier. I can actually sit through all 3 hours of church. It is nice to not have the pain anymore. I think I will be a triathlete for life. Here are a few pictures from my training.

Cooling down at the end of a workout in California.



After a 14 mile bike ride with Erik and his Dad in American Fork

After an open water swim clinic at Blackridge resevoir. It really helped to get an idea of what mass chaos would erupt on race day. We had to practice swimming over and under each other and stuff like that. It was very helpful.

The great thing about Tri training is you lose a lot of weight and have to go shopping. I lost 2 clothing sizes and am now a size 3 jeans and a size small shirt for the first time in like 5 years. It was nice to have an excuse to visit girl heaven (the mall).