Escuela de nursing

Doug started school a couple weeks ago and it is going great so far.

This was his first day of school, a must needed photo moment. He was very embarrased because our neighbors were outside and he felt a little child-ish. That's his awesome new scooter.

He wears green scrubs to his labs and clinicals and looks great in this outfit. Doug is getting really good at taking blood pressures, so if you are concerned with your BP or just curious, then stop on by for a free reading!

FYI, next week is bed baths in his lab, so if he asks you to come and be a practice person for him...I would think twice.

A New Basement

Our dear cousins and friends Kira, Jeff, and their cute baby Luke moved away to Arizona and our basement was left vacant...for an entire week. During that week Doug and I kept very busy doing a lot of improvements (sorry that we waited until you moved out Kira...didn't want to bother you too much!)

We got the door replaced and it actually opens and closes very easily now. Plus it looks much nicer.

We replaced the kitchen floor with the help of Doug's dad. It took Doug, his dad, and myself a Saturday morning/afternoon to complete it and it made a big difference.

We painted the bedroom and bathroom and repaired a big hole in the wall. A funny side note about picking paint colors. I am not the best at making decisions and paint is not an exception. I pick up a million sample colors, then compare, then buy a few different sample cans to try on the wall. It is a big ordeal. Well I was working and Doug informed me that he was going to be 100% in charge of the bedroom paint color. I really didn't care because I don't have to live down there, so even if he chose a horrible color, I never had to see it. Well he went to Lowe's and this was the first color he saw, he liked it, he bought it and he came home and painted it. I really like the color and think he did an excellent job. He is much better at paint picking than myself.


Doug cleaned the carpets with my parents carpet cleaner. It is very handy to have a free carpet cleaner on hand whenever needed. I tried a few lines and felt that Doug enjoyed the job much more than I did, so he took it over for the rest of the time.

When we replaced our floor upstairs we found some funny things hidden between layers of flooring (and old dried cucumber and a bandaid). Well downstairs was no exception. I took a vent off to clean it and I found a very old record hidden away. It was "The Night Before Christmas" and very dusty. We cleaned it off really good and then decided to put it back where we found it, for someone else to enjoy finding.

The Many Faces of Doug

After our river trip Doug decided to continue to grow out his beard until school started. This gave him a good three weeks worth of growth. When it was time for the beard to go, Doug had an idea...try a few different looks before going back to a clean-shaven man.

The fu manchu. Doug got a scooter from his brother in law Ben and that's why the helmet and glasses. We drove his scooter around to show a few people his new look and everybody seemed to get a good laugh.

My least favorite. I call this "the rapist" if you are familiar with SNL celebrity jeopardy. Or if you are not, then I call it just plain creepy.

And my good clean shaven man is back! Just the way I like him.

Coming in Feb 2011...

Doug the dad.and

Tricia the mom.

..........

if you can believe it.

it has taken me 10 weeks to fully believe it myself.

and then to actually announce it, because then it's really real.

..........

A couple months ago a huge surprise happened. I wasn't feeling great and you will never guess what the cause was? I was pregnant. Definitely not planned. Doug was woken up very abruptly at 4:00 am to a very distraught wife.

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But we are so happy and feel blessed to be so lucky. I was reading in a maternity/obstetrics book at work tonight and I came upon this quote talking about finding out that you are pregnant: "No other life experience can evoke such absolute joy or else such pains of profound despair." Sadly I have to admit that each of those emotions were felt when we found out. The first was felt by Doug. He is such a happy, optimistic, and smart boy. He knew this would be a wonderful thing and he was excited and immediately happy.

............

The second by me. I was so sad at first. It wasn't the right timing, it wasn't what we had planned for, and on and on. Slowly I have come to see that this will be great and I am excited now and very happy. I feel so lucky in my life right now. I have a great husband who is doing good in school. I have a good job, a wonderful family, and we are going to really be starting our family now. Life is good.

Happy Birthday Nate

I am working tonight so I am taking this time to update all that I have been slacking on...hence the large amount of blogging after such a drought. Today my nephew Nate had a birthday party for his 16th birthday...if you can believe that I have nephews that old. It is crazy for me to think of Nate dating and driving, but the ladies in Salem, UT sure are lucky to have a handsome boy like him around. Anyway, for his party they had a giant slip and slide and it was so fun. Here are a few pictures from the afternoon.

Doug and I decided that Bow needed a little more excitement in his life, so Doug gave him some fun. We don't know if he enjoyed it or hated it. The boy gave us no reaction.

Doug, RN

Great news! Doug got accepted into UVU's nursing program, starting this fall! He has worked so hard to get good grades because their program is pretty competitive and I so proud that he got in. Doug will make the 3rd nurse in my family (me, my sister Aly, then Doug). I know he will be a great nurse for the time that he does nursing. After he works a year or two as a registered nurse, then we will head off to school for nurse anesthetist or CRNA for short. A CRNA does basically the same thing that an anesthesiologist does. It's like a PA compared to a MD.

So watch out all you female nurses, the male nurse is coming!

Salmon River 2010

Doug and I had the most wonderful vacation ever last week. We went on a whitewater rafting trip for 5 days on the Salmon River, in the great state of Idaho. My friend Alison and her husband Vance worked a few trips this summer as guides, so we decided to join them for the fun and good company. I have been down the river two times before, but this was Doug's first time and he had a great time. We spent each day floating down the river and at night we camped on beaches along the river. Ali and Vance have some serious skills. They knew all the rapids and were legit river guides. It was fun to see them in action. Ali must have some serious arm muscles from rowing each day down the river. We traveled around 80-90 miles total and went through some pretty fun rapids.

These wonderfully dressed men washed all the guests hair. They spoke in great Russian accents and were pretty funny to listen to. After a few days on the river it really feels nice to get your hair washed.

There is a great activity called body womping that we tried out...well Doug tried it out. You run from the beach and jump on the upside down raft into the water. As you jump on the raft, the people on the side pull it up so you are launched into the river. I attempted my very first video on the blog, so if it works you can view one of Doug's runs.

The last night we all dressed up for dinner and then had a variety show. Doug surprisingly enough picked this outfit out all by himself and proudly wore it all night long. Below is our tent that Vance so kindly wrote our name in cursive on...making us feel oh so special.

The group that went was pretty fun. There were only 8 official guests and the rest included friends like Doug and I, other guides, guides in training and so on. A good group for sure.

The last day on the river was a shorter day, so I thought it would be fun to go on the 2 person inflatable kayak with Doug. We got going down the river and I soon realized that we had 3 big rapids to get through. Doug was thrilled and I was too, but a little nervous as well. So we got through #1 perfectly, but #2 and #3 were another story. On rapid #2, "chittum" we went over the rapid and Doug fell out of the kayak. I had no idea he had fallen out and no idea he was below the kayak getting recirculated by the rapid. Once I realized that I was the lone person in the kayak and started paddling out of the rapids trying to see him and then he popped right up! That was a big relief. I thought of a good shirt idea to sell after the rapid "chittum". It would say " I shit 'em in chittum" Doug thinks he did actually do that.

Then rapid #3 came along and we went a little too far right and hit a good set of rapid that knocked us both out the kayak. Doug kept coming up right under me and then he would try and push me out of the way to he could get some air. This was all while we are going through a bunch of other smaller whitewater. It was pretty exciting, cold, and enough for me for the day!