Weekend Adventures

It's official, I'm going under the knife. I'm finally getting my tonsils out at the end of June. Thankfully, when the swelling went down on my nose it wasn't crooked after all so I don't have to get anything done to it. I'm lucky to be working at businesses that are so accommodating. A couple days after calling in sick for my first day I called back and asked for a week off for my tonsils and they have been really nice about it. If it was my business I'd probably fire me and hire someone else less injury-prone!

I did finally get to work down at the boutique. It's a really cute shop and it's fun to help the people that come in. People from all over the country come to stay at the resort and I never really realized that personally. The holiday weekend was kind of a downer for the people downtown though because the lake was so flooded that the whole lake was a "no wake" zone.

For Memorial Weekend my family always goes camping up at the St. Joe River, just south and east of Coeur d'Alene. I had to work Saturday, so I went up that evening after work with my sister Sarah and her little family. Lots of extended family and friends come up too. The weather was great most of the weekend. Sunday evening we always have a big potluck dinner with Dutch oven cooked food and other yummy stuff. We also go rafting because that is the only time of year the river is high enough to raft. With all the recent snow melt it was running nice and high... and COLD. I rafted yesterday and it was quite a adventure. I went on two runs and on the second run on the last big rapid our raft tipped and dumped everyone but one person out. I fell out and had someone else fall on top of me, landing on my face so my nose is bruised and a little swollen again. I got swept away fast, so I was in the river the longest as every one else got dragged back into the boat and then tried to get the tow rope close enough to me to drag be in. It was a scary minute or so! The water is so cold it's really hard to breath. I was also floating through rolling water and getting hit in the face with more water. One can get hypothermia fast. I had a lot of layers so my body didn't get too cold, but my arms and legs went numb fast. By the time they dragged me aboard I couldn't move them. I was ok though and that being the last rapid we were done in another 5 min and I was able to jump in a warm car. I was tempted to go on the afternoon runs, but I was too fatigued from the morning's adventure! I still love rafting. Falling out on the St. Joe in May is about the worst case scenario, so if I can survive that, I can survive anything!

Here comes the sun!

Who loves the sun? Sadie loves the sun! This is the weather I was prepared to come back to. For a while it was like I was back in a Jerusalem January and missed the summer-- all cold and rainy-- but now I know summer is coming. I hope it doesn't take too much longer... I'm losing my tan fast.... You think I'm kidding. I'm not. I really had a "tan". Of sorts. Just ask my mom, I was darker than Sarah for the first time in my life!

Life keeps coming at me. I did get another PT job, but I haven't started yet because I got sick Friday, the day I was supposed to start training. I also had to call in sick before my first full shift at the boutique. I felt really bad for whoever had to cover for me! But I think I'm healthy now. My nose is doing fine also; I'm glad it wasn't injured as badly as it could have. It's been bruised, but you can only tell if you are looking for it and that is almost gone now too. It's not really crooked either. It may be slightly lopsided which you can see as you look from the bottom up, but I hope nobody looks from that angle! I go to the doc tomorrow about my tonsils (if I need them out), and I'll have him take a look at my nose too, but I think it will be just fine.

I finally dug into this mess I called my room this weekend. We packed up the living room in preparation for knocking down the back wall, so I got one of the old bookshelves. It helps to finally have somewhere to put all my books (I have a lot). I finally contained the things I store for school in one corner and I can easily access my closet and see myself from head to toe in my mirror. That hasn't happened in a while! Lastly I finally changed my bedding into something less masculine. My room now used to be Benji's room, so I adopted my mom's old bedspread so that it finally looks like a girl lives here.

The Good, the Bad, and the Broken

So this second week home was a little more exciting than the first! I did get a PT job at Marie's Boutique downtown in the resort and I'll start working next weekend after training. I'm going to keep looking for another part time job so I can be working full time.

Our add-on is starting to look like a real building. The framing is done and the roof has been started. Turns out the old roof on the house was in bad shape, so this week all the shingles were stripped off and we'll get a new roof over everything. We've had pounding overhead all week and it sounds like the workers are going to bust through! Mom keeps pictures of the project updated on her blog, so you can look at them by following her link on the left.

This week I also came down with tonsillitis. I don't know if I've ever had it before, at least not this bad: it was pretty painful. It's usually strep throat I get, but not this time. I've always had sore throats growing up so the doctor suggested I just get my tonsils out this summer. I'm going to go in and get checked by the ear, nose, and throat guy to see what he thinks. I've never had surgery other than getting my wisdom teeth out, so it's kinda scary to consider! I've never been put out under anesthesia either.

Lastly I think I broke my nose today. Doesn't quite look like it did before. I was down at Dad's office helping with an emergency tooth extraction. As I was cleaning up, I stepped halfway into the lab to quickly set something in there. While I was pulling my head back out and turning my head, I creamed my nose on the door jamb. We have a family history of broken noses. I think I'm the 4th kid to break it, and my mom and all her siblings have broken their noses too. It's not too swollen, but it is still kinda painful and not as straight as it once was so I've been icing it. Good thing I already have an appointment with our nose doctor!

Happy Mother's Day tomorrow for all of you moms, almost moms, and those who act as moms!

Get in on the Ultimate Steal!

Hey if any of you readers are enrolled as students at a college or university and have an active school email ending in .edu than you can get in on this deal. Microsoft is promoting all their new software put out in 2007 and they are selling it to students for 1/10 of the normal price. You get $600 worth of software for $60. Thats the average price for just one program. Click on the "Ultimate Steal" link to learn more and purchase it.

This is a real deal. I bought it while I was in Jerusalem this last semester and I was referred to it by the Costco free concierge service guy that helps me with my computer when I struggle. You get all the programs in the Microsoft Ultimate Office package. I got mainly because I needed OneNote (which I use to take all my class notes all semester-fabulous program!), Word, and PowerPoint and even so that's a deal just for those programs. If any of you have students that need this (or if YOU need it and want to exploit your student and let them buy it for you) let them know about it quickly because the offer ends in 6 days! If you have any questions just ask me and I can help.

For any BYU students, I had a problem at first because I thought my school email ended in @byu.net, but it actually ends in @nm.byu.edu. The .net address is just an alias that is delivered to the real address. Use the .edu or it won't work.

New Face

As you may have noticed, I changed things up a bit on here. I didn't realize it at first but when I set up this blog, the color scheme actually matched the Holy Land-scape unintentionally. Since I am no longer there, I thought it appropriate to change it to reflect where I am now- Idaho! K, I'm done being deep.

I'm still looking for work. I had an interview this week and I was hoping to find out if I got the job by today but no luck. It's been kind of nice to relax and hang out all week, but I'm getting lazy and I need an occupation. I have been unpacking and cleaning up my room. It's kind of a disaster, but I'm making progress and going through and getting rid of stuff. I'll have a yard sale later when I get it all gathered. If I'm not going to use the stuff anymore I may as well make a buck on it. If any of you want to donate to my cause, feel free!


Sorry, I didn't know how to make any of this sound exciting this time. It's inherently boring material, not much to work with. Hopefully I'll have cooler news next time.

ps. I've reached over 1000 hits since I began my blog. Thank you to all you faithful readers, all five of you.... Ha! And I added a new album of pictures of the JC itself so you could see more of what the building looked like that I spent so much time in.