A Lazy Day+Cable=Unusual Results

So Troy and I do not pay for cable, which means that we only get the standard channels. We ended up staying at Troy's parents for few days while they went to California. This meant that we were just being lazy around the house and we could watch all the cable we wanted. This might not sound very exciting to those of you who have cable at your disposal anytime; however, we got to explore shows that we never seen before. Somehow we ended up on Bravo and watched 6 hours---yes 6 hours of Project Runaway in one day. It sure was entertaining and I am not even that into fashion and most of the time think that runaway designs are ridiculous.

I know this was completely a "waste of time", but I do not feel guilty about being so lazy. I was working on a 1000 puzzle as I watched the show so I guess I was doing something little more intellectual at the same time.

We are now off to Finland for 12 days. So excited! Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and had a chance to relax and maybe even do something unusually lazy or just different:)

Picture Tag

So I was tagged by Camille to post the 6th picture of the 6th folder on my computer. I only had two pictures in my 6th folder so this is what you guys get.

This picture of Anna and I is from last Christmas. We were about to start another intense game of "Ticket to Ride". Today is Anna's 22nd birthday. We are only year and half apart. I love having Anna so close to my age; I just wish that we could be little closer together geographically.

Things I love about Anna

-her loyalty

-her honesty

-her kindness

-her beauty and she doesn't even realize how beautiful she is

-the fact that she loves food as much as I do

And the list would obviously go on and on. Happy Birthday Anna! I hope you know how much I love you!

I miss Him

I took Troy to the airport yesterday around 4:30 pm then I came home and watched few of my shows that I had recorded. Then I started reading my book and around 7 pm I realized how much I already missed him and how bored I would be while he was gone. This is not a "my husband is the best, most perfect husband in the world" post because that would not be truthful; however, he is the best, most perfect husband for me. I look at the last 4 years that we have been together and I just amazed at how good life can be. It hasn't been perfect; we have lived through almost four semesters of nursing school that tends to make me a monster periodically(though this semester I have been so good if I must say so myself), he was there for me when my mom passed away and still has to comfort me often even though he knows that very few things bring comfort, he drives me crazy with his geek stuff at times and I know he wonders how is it possible to not put the cap on the toothpaste, but no matter what I have always known that my life will always be good(not easy) because I married Troy in the temple little more than three years ago. 

Foreign Language Requirement Fulfilled

In order to graduate next May, I needed to take at least two semesters of foreign language(Second language). Fortunately for me, the university lets you test out of a language. So logically, I should be able to test out of English since it is my second language, but since I graduated from U.S high school, I cannot do that. This leaves me with the option of testing out of Finnish. Yes they want to make sure that I can speak Finnish fluently enough that I can test out of two semesters of a foreign language. So I call the linguistic department and give them all my information and they tell me that it might be a while before they can find someone who can test me. No surprise there since Finnish is not a language that many people know or even have a desire to know.  After three months of waiting, they finally set up a test date for me. So I find my way to the linguistic department building and this how the test goes.

"Hey, I'm professor so and so. I do not speak any Finnish. I want you to tell me how you learned Finnish first in English and then I want you to tell me the same thing in Finnish. I will listen to you and see if it sounds fluent."

"Well I was born and raised in FInland and learned Finnish as my first language. Then my family moved to California and I learned English. I went to school in Finland for 8 years and I talk with my family in Finnish every week"

Then I told my exciting story in Finnish, which was very weird and kind of uncomfortable. 

I also had to translate few sentences from a text book from the 1960s and then she announced that she could tell that I am a native speaker. 

I wish all of my tests were like this...

A weekend recap

We had a great weekend, which is always a fabulous thing after a long week of school and work. Friday night we watched the movie "The Queen"; I would recommend it. It seems like good movies are harder and harder to find so when I actually enjoy a movie, I feel very satisfied.

On Saturday we visited Apple Annie's with our friends Brian and Alia. It was little over an hour drive to get there from Tucson. We have never actually driven that far east from Tucson before so it was unconquered territory for us. We enjoyed some delicious apple pie, a fun corn maze and picked pumpkins for Halloween. I should point out a fun fact about our friendship with Brian and Alia. Brian was with Troy on the night that Troy and I met. Also Brian and Alia came over to Troy's house on their first date to watch a movie with us. We happened to be in the same married ward at BYU and now they live in Tucson. What a small world, but we sure are grateful to have friends like them!

After our afternoon adventure, I was trying to be a good girl and do some homework. I was studying in the kitchen when I happened to look at the floor. There was a scorpion about 3 feet away from my feet. It was Arizona Bark Scorpion, which happens to be the most venomous one. 

On Sunday we enjoyed a fabulous dinner with Kat and Michael. There something wonderful about enjoying good food with fun people.  Many of our friends are not huge fans of Tucson (just like we aren't); however, I am glad that we have them to share our lives with and make the best out of this dirty, I mean desert place.

We also did try out "Zinburger" for the first time this week. Fabulous burgers! I highly recommend!

What a Wonderful Day (Minus 3.5 hours)

Today has been so enjoyable with conference. I feel like there has been so many things that apply to my life and I am very grateful to have the opportunity to listen to our church leadership. This week has been exhausting in many levels so I felt rejuvenated by the reminder about what really matters in life. I also loved the fact that we have more and more international general authorities. Though I did have to pay more attention to the French (at least he sounded French) speaker. Did anyone have any favorite talks so far?? I just love Jeffrey R. Holland's talks; he has a way of touching my heart every time he talks.

The excitement of general conference kind of died as I got home and started to take my literature class exam online. It is my last GE requirement so I have to take it. I have not had time to read 200+ pages of Whitman or Emerson etc as they are not light reading nor are they a genre that I enjoy. This made my test very difficult as it was 16 essay questions...let's just say that I hope she is not a hard grader. I spent more than three hours on that test...what a waste of my precious time. I should have been studying for the psychiatric nursing test that is on Monday. 

My healthy life style is going well so far--1.5 pounds down and few more to go:)

Slight change to Our Plan

Thank you everyone for your words of wisdom! I have to admit that it feels like forever since I started my new way eating. Yesterday as I went for a run, I thought "wow I'm so proud of myself for not eating anything sweet" and then I realize it's only been two days. Those two days were very busy and pretty stressful and usually I would have rewarded myself with something sweet. 

Since most people said that moderation is a good way to go. Troy and I decided that we can have something sweet once a week. When I was a kid (as opposed to being such a mature adult now), Fridays were candy days.We were allowed 5 finnish marks, which is equivalent to a dollar, for candy. So Fridays will be our candy days; of course there will be moderation in how much we can eat that day too.  We also noticed that we had some Skinny Cow ice cream in our fridge and Troy is like "it's not gonna be good in two months". :)

I woke up this morning without any desire to go for a run. Hopefully I can find some before the day is over. This is one of the pit falls of running by yourself;it's too easy to not go and run. I so wish I could find a group to run with.

Declaration for Change

Unfortunately, I have gained some pounds over the last three years(though mostly I think it's from last 9 months) and I have decided to get rid off them. So tomorrow Troy and I are starting "no sweets, no fast food" diet until Thanksgiving. I will be allowed to eat candy on halloween but that's it. One of my friends nicely pointed out that the amount of weight I have put on is like a "sack of potatoes". So no need for Russet potatoes around my waist or hips. If you see me touch anything that looks like cookies, brownies etc, slap my hand! 

Does anyone have any good ideas on weight loss?? I will be running about 4 times a week so that should help, but I would love to hear anyone's experiences on the issue. Or if anyone wants to join me on my challenge, it's always easier to have more people supporting you.

I do have to confess that Troy is kind of forced into this diet, but a girl can't be healthy if the hubby is allowed to have sweets around the house. I probably seem like such a dictator to people...

My Husband Loves Me

Yes, I can even prove it to you. I went to check the mail few days ago and there was the declaration of Troy's love for me. I pulled it out the mailbox with excitement. My first issue of Runner's World had arrived. As Troy and I discussed possible anniversary present options, I told him that I loved reading this particular magazine and it would be nice to get a monthly reminder that he loves me. Don't get me wrong, he does tell me that he loves me on daily basis, but more tangible reminders are nice too:)

I'm in a "I want to be a hardcore runner" mood again. Since high school, I have identified myself as a runner. Back then I did the sprints and now I'm doing the long-distance; however, all I needed was a pair of running shoes to feel good about things.

How do you identify yourself? Obviously we all have several things that identify us, but what is your favorite?

P.S I am signed up for Tucson Half-Marathon on Dec. 7th. If anyone is interested joining me or just training with me, let me know!

Inspiration

I am one of those people who reads strangers' blogs because I find some of these blogs so inspiring. Few weeks ago, I came across a blog by a woman whose sister had been in a plane crash. The sister and her husband were both burned quite severely. They have four little children. Some of you might have even heard about her; she seems to be quite the hit as "blogger mom".   This morning I happened to go and read the blog again as well as the sister's blog; I was amazed by their positive attitude, their faith and love for life. What a great reminder on a Sunday morning to count my blessings and show more love to those around me. 

Back to Blond

So I am back to being blond and I totally love it. I don't think I'll go dark anytime soon again. They say that blondes have more fun and I have totally noticed it. It seems like the last three weeks have been like a big party. OK, I'm so kidding. Life has been crazy since Troy's surgery and school started. Luckily Troy's mom came and stayed with us for few weeks because Troy wasn't able to drive and I wasn't able to drive him to all of his physical therapy appointments plus to classes etc. So Troy's mom really saved us and also pampered us. She made us breakfast in the mornings and cooked dinner. She even made lunches for Troy. We have never been spoiled like that before so we absolutely loved it. 

This is the sight that welcome me back one day after school. Homemade cinnamon rolls and dinner on the stove:)

So I got some layers going on with blond highlights. Troy wants my hair even lighter but this is as light as they would go since my hair was pretty dark. 

So I'm doing a psychiatric nursing rotation for the next 5 weeks and work one 12- shift a week while Troy goes to school 4 days a week, has twice a week PT appointments and works 35 hours a week. We don't get to spend much quality time together, but I sure love being married to him. We just celebrated our 3 year anniversary on Wednesday. Our celebration mirrored our lack of energy: macaroni grill take out and  watching Jane Austen's Emma movie. Also my friend introduced us to Skinny Cow ice cream. So now I feel better about eating an ice cream sandwich that has only 140 calories in it. Of course, I never knew how many calories were in other ice cream brands but now I feel like I have more self-control!

Blessing of Going to Church

Since our trip happened to go over the weekend, we decided to visit the Banff ward for the Sunday meetings. We literally received two blessings right away from going to church that day. There happened to be a special broadcast from Calgary with Jeffrey R. Holland as the speaker. The huge blessing was our surprise meeting with Cheryl and Lonnie. We didn't have any idea that they were visiting Banff as well. I don't think Cheryl and Lonnie even recognized Troy and I at first since I had my glasses on and brown hair now. We ended up spending the afternoon with them and loved every minute of it. 

I lived with Cheryl and Lonnie for two semester during high school after my family moved back to Finland and I wanted to finish high school in California. They are one of the most generous and loving people in the world. Just the fact that they would take two teenage girls under their care after their own kids were gone shows their kindness and patience:) I hope Anna and I didn't cause them too much stress! Being part of the Smith family for the last seven years has been such a blessing. We really don't see them often enough but enjoy any and every occasion to be with them. 

Not Quite the Smoothest Trip

Troy and I flew separately to Calgary since we had United frequent flyer miles and US airways credit. We were scheduled to land at midnight; Troy's flight about 2 minutes before mine. As I was wasting time at the Denver airport during my three hour lay-over, Troy calls me to let me know that his flight is delayed from Tucson to Phoenix. OK, not a big deal since it's only about a 20 minute flight. However, right before my flight is about to take off he calls me with the bad news. There happened to be a sandstorm in the Phoenix area and Troy's plane did not take off for 3 hours, which meant that his connecting flight to Calgary left Phoenix while Troy was still sitting in Tucson. I have traveled quite a bit and I think of myself as an independent person; however, when Troy's with me, I am more than happy to have him take over and handle the details. So I land in Calgary, turn my phone on and get a text saying that he won't get there until the next day and what the hotel name is that we(now of course just I) are staying. Luckily, Troy's parents were home and able to pick him up from the airport so he wasn't deserted there for the night. He ended up catching the "early flight"to Calgary, which landed at 3 pm.  At that point, I was just happy to start our vacation together.

On our way home, both of us missed our flights. Troy arrived at the airport little too late so the airline rep did not even let him check in. So his 7 am departure turned into a 2:30 pm departure. For some reason, United was having a difficult time with check-ins. The check-in line was so long that by the time, I made it to the desk, she said that I could try my luck and run to the gate or just take a later flight. Since Troy was stuck in Calgary until the afternoon, I chose to stay with him. What a sweet gesture of love. We ended up taking short naps one at a time and ate lunch before I thought it would be a good time to go and line up for the customs. Yes, you had to go through customs and passport control before your flight. So my one hour cushion before the flight was not enough apparently. I even passed about 20 people in line and I barely made my flight. As I ran to the gate, they were waiting for me and called me name as I approached the gate. 

We stayed in this cute cabin on the first night. It was very authentic and we decided to use the fireplace. The ventilation didn't work well so the smoke alarm went off twice and they had to bring a fan to blow the smoke out. Talk about spoiling the romance:)
We stayed at a hotel called "Fox" for our last night there. We loved how they had carried the theme in everything. Plus it was nice to have the hotel in downtown Banff after all the driving and hiking we had done on previous days.

P.S I know there is quite a bit writing on these posts; they are little bit of a travel journal for us. So I apologize if it's boring:)

Banff The Beautiful

Right now I just want to share some sweet pictures from our trip. We spent four days in Banff National Park, Canada. I will write about it tomorrow when I have little more energy. We got back yesterday around 8 pm  and both worked 12 hours today so we are pretty tired. And of course, Troy is getting his knee done tomorrow (ACL reconstructive surgery) so we'll have to be at the hospital at 6 am. 

View of Lake Louise from the mountains

We visited the "Upper Hot Springs" to relax our muscles.

The top of our 9 mile hike called "Plain of Six Glaciers"
I found a candy store with Finnish black liquorice
Lake Minnewanka--too cold for a swim but so peaceful to look at

Lake Louise-the pictures don't do justice to how turquoise the water is.

Random Facts

I ignored Starla's tag few months ago so I better not do it this time:) So here are six random facts about me.

1.I love shopping with gift cards. I am all about saving money, but I spend my gift cards so quickly. Some of our friends have gift cards from their weddings few years later. Mine were gone within a month from our wedding. So I used to say that I don't like shopping but it's not true. I just hate spending my money. 

2. I used to have a fear of ordering at restaurants because of all the follow-up questions that come with ordering. This obviously goes back to the time when I didn't speak English completely fluently.  So my friends would order for me and though I have gotten over this "fear", Troy still likes to order for me.

3. I hate doing dishes. I don't mind cooking, cleaning or doing the laundry but doing dishes after dinner just annoys me. 

4. Before Troy and I got married, I only knew how to cook one meal. When we were dating, he used to cook for me all the time. So Troy was pretty worried about how our meal situation would be after we got married.  

5. One of my summer jobs during college was (Do you like I talk as if I have graduated:)) working at a cheese factory. To make the story even better, I worked the night shift and I cleaned the cheese machines with pressure hoses. I wore rubber boots, overalls and gloves and I was still always soaking  wet and found cheese in weird places when I got home. 

6. I was 5 feet 1 inch when I was in fifth grade so I have only grown about 3 inches since then. I went from one of the tallest girls to an average size. It must have been those years of gymnastics...

I tag Emmy,Camille and Hottie and I won't be offended if you ignore the tag:) 

Making My Vote Count

No I am not talking about the upcoming presidential race though it would be interesting to find out what people are thinking about the different campaigns and platforms. Since I cannot vote for the president of the United States, I wanted to make my vote count on So You Think You Can Dance. Troy and I have watched it since the beginning of the season and tonight is the first night that I am actually calling the toll-free number and casting my vote. Let's hope it will be worth of all this dialing:0

Lazy and Productive Saturday

I know lazy and productive are contradictory to each other. However, that is exactly how I would describe how yesterday was. We slept in, played Play Station 3(Troy) and read books (Eevi) in the morning. We also finished painting our guest bathroom and cleaned the house. I even took a two-hour nap and in the evening went for a 3.5 mile run. I have really missed running this summer and it felt wonderful to run again. Troy biked next to me to make sure that I was safe:) I did watch an Iron Girl race on TV and wished that I knew how to swim well so I could go and do one of these races. 

So we decided to paint our guest bathroom with dark red color. We still need to do some touch ups with the ceiling and corners but I love the way it looks. Of course, now we have to buy new shower curtain and bathroom rugs:) Gotta love the cost of decorating.

I also thought that I would share an amusing conversation that I had with a patient's spouse. 

Spouse: "Do you have an accent?"

I: "yes, I'm from Finland(I get this question quite a bit)."

Spouse: "I thought it must be either an accent or hearing impairment."

I: "Yeah, it's an accent"

I am not thrilled when people point out my accent but I am very used to it; however, I would have never thought that it sounded like I had a hearing impairment. Some people just surprise you with comments that should never be said out loud.

P.S few people have requested for me to share some of the books that I'm reading so I will do that in few days

 

I like my job but I love my off-days

I feel blessed to have a job that on most days makes me feel happy and satisfied. The perk of being a nurse(or working with a nurse for the summer) is that you only work three days a week. Obviously our shifts are 12 hours and you are exhausted by the time you get home, but you have four days off. I have been enjoying my off-days so much since I discovered that I can reserve books online on the library website. Yes, I am so nerdy. I reserved 11 books at one time and happily started going through them. So far I have read almost four of them in the last week. 

I have also gone to the high school pool and Troy has joined me for swim workouts. Today I swam 800 meters and he did 500 meters. It's lot more fun and less embarrassing to have someone there with me. I always feel like I'm trying to escape the Arizona summers and hide inside my house with A/C on and it feels great to actually enjoy the heat while swimming.

I also met up with one of my nursing school friends at the Reid Park Zoo. She was babysitting so I tagged along for some animal watching.  We got there around 9 am and I was shocked to see how many moms/grandmas and few dads were there that early with their kids.  It must be the place to be!

Elephants used to be my favorite animal, but I'm thinking that Giraffes are ever cooler. I haven't seen a live one for few years and I had forgotten how beautiful they are. Two of the giraffes were doing some hugging and "dancing" with their necks. They have some flexible necks. 

Something Little Different

About a month ago, I went to ophthalmologist because my far vision seemed very blurry. I was thinking that the doctor will tell me to wear glasses while I'm driving or in class. Surprisingly enough, I have astigmatism and I will be wearing glasses all the time. So finally after four weeks of waiting, my glasses arrived this morning and I have been trying to get used to them all day. I keep thinking they are sunglasses and try to put them on top of my head when I do things. Now I just have to figure out if I should do something different with my make-up when wearing glasses? So all ladies with glasses, give me some tips:)

So far I'm liking them. I just hope I won't get tired of them too quickly. At least I can get new glasses every year:)

This picture is really not the best because after our swim workout, I decided to go with the t-shirt and no make-up look for the rest of the day. 

"LIttle" sister's Visit

Since I have been out of "home" for more than five years now, I tend to think of my youngest sister as a little girl when in reality she has grown into a beautiful young woman. Aino and her friend Sonja came to visit us for few days and we tried not to be too boring for these 16 year olds.  As you can see, Aino likes tanning so we tried to take advantage of the Tucson weather to improve her tan. Of course, it happens to be the monsoon season and we saw more rain than sun that week.  We shopped, ate great food and saw "Made of Honor". It ended up being a pretty cute comedy. However, it did have some unnecessary inappropriate comments and humor, which seems to be the case with almost all the new movies. 

Aino and Troy making some Chicken Enchaladas for dinner
Girls excited about eating brownies while watching So You Think You Can Dance.

Aino's comments from her visit were "Troy, I didn't know you were so stylish" and while talking to dad on the phone, she encouraged dad to follow Troy's example with dressing up. She also told us that our kids would be so lucky since we cook such good food. We loved having her here for few days and were reminded again of how nice it would be to be closer to my family.

I'm a Land Mammal

I decided to try swimming as a workout so I bravely went to the local public pool by myself and jumped into the water. I went during the "adult lap hours" so there were only few other people. which didn't make me feel any better. I happened to be the only girl among the middle age men who were getting their workout in. Also I think my bathing suit with Zebra print took away any attempt to look like a serious swimmer, but I sure love that bathing suit. Thanks Janae:)

I find it funny that I can run 400 m(1/4 mile), which is one lap around the track, in one minute while it took me at least 10 minutes to swim 400 meters. I just do the breast stroke because I have not figured out my breathing rhythm for freestyle. 

I will enjoy my swimming workouts; however, I won't be trying to switch from running races to swimming races anytime soon. 

World of Workout Videos

For the past week, I have been enjoying workouts in my living room as I follow the cheerful commands of the perky model girl on the TV. "Eight more; feel the burn" she says as she doing lunges on some beach in Mexico. I do have to confess that I used to think of these workout videos as silly way to exercise; however, right now I am finding them to be perfect way to stay in shape when even the thought of going outside makes me break into sweat. Plus Troy thinks it's entertaining when I'm trying to hold my pilates poses since I have lost much of my flexibility since my gymnastics and track days. What is everyone else doing during those months when working out seems impossible?

Of course to balance this new exercise regimen, I am now eating Ben&Jerry's Mint Chocolate Cookie. 

Sweetness of Babies

I absolutely love babies and I have not even had one of my own yet. Since I'm working at the mother-baby unit, I get to witness the sweetness of new families and the joy these babies bring to their parents. I love to hold them and talk to the parents about them and see the transformation that takes place when they welcome their babies into this world. It never fails to amaze me how incredible the human life is. It is such a pleasure to work with the moms and the babies because most of the time, they are so appreciative of your help and teaching and it really is a happy time in the hospital. Below are pictures of some fabulous moms that I get to hang out with on my free time:) 

Janae and I went to visit Lili who just had her baby girl few weeks ago. Again and again, I am reminded of what a blessing it is to have good friends. 
Heather had Mr. James in March and he never was very small:) The picture is from our last night together before they moved to California. We miss them terribly and hope that somehow we will live in the same area in the future:) 

Trip to the Home Land

We went on a quick week and half trip to Finland for my brother's high school graduation. As always, it was wonderful to be in Finland. We made a daily trip to the candy store with at least 50 bins of different candy to choose from and ate finnish pastries and rye bread with the delicious Finnish cheese. The weather was perfect (in the 70s) and we spent hours outside. The highlight was obviously Mio's graduation and the graduation party and it was fun to see our family friends. 

Dad and I before our 10 K run on a saturday morning, The luxury of running on trails that are lined with green trees and overlooking the sea. 

Our silly family after Mio's party. Notice the different graduation cap. 

Anna and I sitting in the graduation ceremony. 

We hope to be able to live in Finland for few years in the future though it would definitely be a change. Here are some of the adjustments that would happen when moving to Finland

-Troy needs to learn Finnish

- gas prices of 9 dollars/gallon

-no mexican food

-move from a 1500 sq ft house to probably a 800-1000 sq ft apartment(due to expensive house prices)

-more expensive food prices

-far away from Troy's family

-long, dark winters

-Troy probably wouldn't make as much as money and I for sure as a nurse would make much less money.

-

What we would gain from our move

-daily access to the best chocolate and candy in the world(obviously on the top of the list!)

-free health care

- excellent public transportation

-great schools for our kids and free college education

- close to my family

-access to sauna

-ability to take trips to different European countries for cheap prices

-sun setting around midnight during summer time

-swimming in the CLEAN lakes during summer

-ability to walk to places and miles and miles of great running trails

OK, both lists are obviously much longer but those are some of the big differences between the two countries. I really love living in both countries though Mexico..I mean Tucson is not that close to my heart.  How do other people feel about living in different countries?

LIttle Escape from Reality

No, we are not using drugs to escape the responsibilities of life. We escapee to the Yosemite National Park for a weekend to meet up with my dad. Every year, he finds a business conference in the Western U.S to attend and mixes business with pleasure as he comes to visit us or we meet with him. Fall 2006, dad and I took a week long road trip in Northern California.

This time, we met up with dad in Vegas, where he had spent few days at a conference, and drove to California. We drove around Yosemite and got settled into our canvas tent on Friday. It dropped to the 20s at night so Troy and I shared a sleeping bag to keep us warm. My poor dad had 4 blankets and he was still freezing.  

We actually saw a bear and bear cubs! It wasn't a huge bear but still a bear.  As we were driving out of Yosemite, everyone was stopping and getting out of their cars with cameras. So Troy did the same and now we have a proof of our bear experience. We also saw a car that a bear had destroyed. At first we thought that it was a "set-up" to remind everyone to be smart about food etc in their cars; however, as we returned from our hike  we saw a couple whose car it was. They weren't very happy as the driver's side door was torn off and windows broken.

On Saturday we did a 6-mile hike to the Nevada waterfalls; the top of the upper one in this picture . We actually got wet as we passed the first waterfall because there was so much mist. It was beautiful and we got a nice work out since it was quite the elevation change.

My dad insists on getting a convertible when he visits California so I had be bundled up to keep myself warm. There was still now in some parts of the national park so no wonder it got little chilly.

Our trip gave us the much needed energy boost to finish this week's finals. Good luck to everyone who is doing their finals or whose hubbies are finishing their finals.  I'll be at the health science library at 6:30 am tomorrow to study for mine:)

Almost a Panic Attack

I had my big clinical evaluation tests yesterday and I did fine;however, the problem is that fine is never good enough for me. So after 7 hours of evaluation and a nice lunch/dinner afterward, I was feeling OK about the day. I go to bed at 10:30 pm or so and the day starts playing in my mind. I start realizing things that I missed and I just start panicking. I did not fall asleep until 1 am and that was after a phone call to Troy in Florida, who had been sleeping for few hours by this time. So then I wake up around 6 am this morning and immediately start freaking out about the tests again. My heart rate is way above what it should be and I'm feeling nauseous. I'm obviously exhausted since I did not get much sleep the night before or last night but I can't fall back to sleep because I'm so worried about it.

It's not that I failed; however, nursing school has a way of making you feel really dumb when you miss things. So Troy spent half an hour, at 2:30 am his time, convincing me that getting a B is OK. Part of my brain agrees and accepts it and part of it keep screaming "failure". SO yeah, I don't know how good nursing school is for my mentality.

Struggling

So my summer was all planned out with a trip to Finland, internship at the hospital, SF marathon and a few week vacation. Then I got a letter from the hospital few weeks ago and I was reminded again why you shouldn't try to plan everything. I still have my internship so that is good; however, when I interviewed I was told that the internship would end on August 1st, which was perfect since my marathon was on the 3rd. This letter informed me that the last day would be August 10th, which means that I cannot travel to SF to run my marathon and then go on my vacation. It really is not the end of the world, but I had my heart set on running a marathon this summer so I googled marathons in August 2008 and found Park CIty Marathon on August 23rd. Running a marathon is going to be quite the challenge and Park City does not make it any easier with the altitude change and  with the fact that the first 16 miles go uphill. 

I always do my long runs on the weekends, so we drove to Oro Valley and I had mapped out a nice 12 mile course. We went later in the day than we should have so I could really feel the arizona heat. So I started running and at mile 2 I told Troy that I was dying. I just did not feel like myself at all. I knew my form was bad and I wasn't going very fast. This course was uphill for the first 5 or 6 miles so it definitely was not an easy run. I struggled the whole run, I would stop for water breaks about every mile and I just felt like I was not runner at all. And of course, for the first time ever my shorts started chafing my inner thigh. I ended up running 9 miles and then Troy got the car and picked me up. It was a hard run both mentally and physically.

So I'm totally sunburned now and little discouraged but I am determined to run a marathon. I am pretty emotional person and as I watched a clip from a marathon movie earlier today(www.marathonmovie.com), I got all choked up because I know finishing a marathon will be so incredible. I did sprints when I ran track and there is pain involved in the 400 m race; however, that pain goes away in 20 seconds or so.  For a marathon, I will have to push my body for 26 miles and I know it will be hardest physical thing I have ever done (Since I have delivered any babies yet:).

Any words of wisdom or encouragement are welcome:) Is training in the Arizona heat crazy or should I just do it? I know I want to run a marathon, I just need to decide if it's gonna be this summer or in few years...

I'm Back

So I have been very lazy about blogging last weeks. It's not that there was nothing to blog about, but I just had no desire to put in the effort to type my thoughts. I have been tagged like three times so I will start with some of them.

Open the nearest book to page 123 and post the fifth sentence.

From "Into the Wild"

"More and more of the classes he took addressed such pressing social issues as racism and world hunger and inequities in distribution of wealth."

This was a book about 23-year old college graduate from Emory who lived few years on the road and in the nature. It was actually really good and I wanted to see the movie; however, it was of course R rated. 

Hyvää Syntymäpäivää Keiju

Eevi has given me a hard time about never posting on her blog, so I figured there is no better time than her birthday.... even if it is to wish her a happy birthday. Eevi has been a great blessing in my life. In fact my parents were just telling me the other day that Eevi has been good for me. For those of you who have known me for many years, you can understand how true that statement is. Everyday I wake up and look at Eevi and wonder how it is possible that I love her more today than I did the day before. Happy Birthday Eevi-Sofia!!

I know that Eevi likes to have a picture with each post, so I am attaching one of my favorite pictures of her. It is every man's dream to have a super model wife, so here is Eevi's best shot at it. Doesn't she belong on the cover of Vogue!

This is Love

Troy hates needles but he had promised me that I could practice my IV skills on him...ONCE! So here is the happy man after I got done with him. I did not have the connector for the catheter so that is why there is quite a bit of blood. I am proud to say that I did put an IV into a patient last Tuesday and not a drop of blood dripped. It was beautiful. So my IV count is 5 now and 1 blood draw. Oh, the things that get me excited.

Becoming an Adult Can Be Scary

"This is part of being an adult" was the phrase my dear husband gave me on Tuesday night as I was freaking out about calling the hospital and letting them know that I was sick and wouldn't be coming to work the next day. Most of people don't see what the big deal would be; however, when you hate phone calls when the recipient is not your friend, it is a big deal. In addition, I am sort of afraid of confrontation or letting people down. So I was worried that they would start asking me how sick I really was or how much they needed me to come to work. My fears were pointless since it pretty much went like this:

Eevi: "Hey this is Eevi Aura and I'm schedule to work tomorrow, but I'm sick so I won't be able to make it"

Charge nurse: "OK, we'll put you down as a sick day"

Eevi: "thanks so much" Hang up the phone. Running back to our bedroom and happy screaming "Troy, they weren't mean to me about it". 

This is another thing about phone calls; when I make more official phone calls, I have to be in a different room from other people so I don't distracted. 

Let me share some of my "phone call moments" with you. 

1. Freshman year I got sick and had to go the BYU student health center. I didn't want to call and make an appointment so my roommate called. The lady on the other end asked if I was incapable of speaking and after it was concluded that I was not, the phone was handed to me and I made my appointment.

2. In high school I got suckered into one of these gym deals with personal trainer that cost like 70 bucks an hour. Here again, I was too embarrassed to say no to his face so I made one of my friends call and cancel my appointment. The gym personnel were asking her for my birthdate and my friend was not sure so she AIMS me during the phone call for it.

3. I needed to find  a job after we moved to Tucson so I applied everywhere. One of the places was Victoria's Secret. They called me to "congratulate" me on the job and proudly told me that I would be making $6.35 an hour. I said I would think about it. Then I made Troy call and notify them that I would not be taking the position.

I am proud to say that I am growing up and I have made my own doctor's appointments this year, even called restaurants for reservations and called future employers about positions. But I would choose email as a way of communicating any day. 

Thank Heaven for Girl Friends

I love being married to Troy and sharing my life with him. However, every once in a while you just need some girl time. So I went to visit "my other red head" in Utah last week. Starla and I were randomly assigned as roommates our Freshman year and we became inseparable right away. Few things have changed from that time; instead of sleeping about 3 feet away each other, we now live in different states. Instead of taking most of the same classes, eating dinners together and asking "what are we doing this weekend", now we compare our nursing classes and chat through gmail chat most of the time. The wonderful thing about good friendships is the fact that no matter how much things change around us the friendship adjusts to those things. So I know we will still be friends when we are old and frail no matter how far away from each we live; however, for purely selfish reasons, I will be recruiting her to Arizona after she graduates because having her around makes life that much better.

Here Starla is enjoying some waffles that got stuck on the waffle maker. 

This is a picture is at a BYU football game on Troy's birthday about a week after Troy and I had met. We were not dating at this point since I had some other commitments at the moment. 

Starla shamelessly pampered me last weekend. We ate at Cafe Rio, Texas Road House,  and a delicious Easter dinner and you know how much I love eating. I also got to watch hours of college basketball:) 

Another upside of going out of town is the realization of how happy I am come home to Troy.  

Spring Break

Last week was so much fun. Troy and I worked on our backyard. I enjoyed the days without school work, had a girls' night here in Tucson (which included shopping and Jamba Juice run), saw the Easter Pageant at the Mesa Temple and traveled to see Starla in Utah. 

Here I am showing the lean, mean muscles that I used to unload 2 tons of retaining wall block and built the wall. Troy took off some time from work to work on our backyard this week. Since he did not get to finish the wall, I worked on it for good four hours one afternoon. Now we just need to add some bushes and flowers and we are ready for a BBQ party. 

Troy and I met his parents and brother's family at the Mesa Temple and enjoyed the Easter Pageant. Since I was going out of town, we planned for Troy to stay with his parents so he wouldn't get too lonely. Ironically enough, he drove to Tucson with his parents on Friday for a track meet after dropping me off at the Phoenix airport. 
Freshman year girls and Natalie and Suzanna's husbands got together for a breakfast feast. Mollie and Shannah are missing from the picture. It is actually kind of funny how all of us married couples  got married in 4 month sequences. I was the first one Sept 05 (everyone, including myself, thought I would be the last one), Mollie Dec 05, Shannah April 06, Molly Aug 06, Suzanna Dec 06 and Natalie April 07. We have not met a guy who is worthy of my Starla yet. Natalie is the first one to be pregnant and she is due in August. 

I will post more pictures of the girls' weekend after some studying:) Yes, there is school work after spring break, which is so unfair. 

Euro Fresh-America's Best Tasting Tomatoes

This was a slogan on the side of a truck that Troy and I passed on our way yesterday. I thought it was hilarious and thought that maybe someone else might appreciate the oxymoron. The rest of the post has nothing to do with tomatoes (I don't even really like tomatoes).

Today was a very exciting day for me as I finished my first half-marathon. Troy and I got up at 5 am, packed my race bag and drove 45 minutes to the race location. Since this was my first race, we did not know what to expect. We arrived half an hour before the race so 6:30 am and there were about 50 cars in front us waiting to get into the parking lot. We kind of sneaked past most of them and found a spot.Then we saw a huge crowd, which is obviously expected, but I thought that they were lining up for race. Nope, every one else had to do a trip to the bathroom just like I had planned. We waited in line for 15 minutes and got in and even to the start area before the start of the race.

Troy and I are not huge fans of the desert. Troy loves mountains and we are too far away from them in our neighborhood. So he was mesmerized by the scenery around Oro Valley, which is a a nice (expensive) area to live with some beautiful mountains.  He keeps talking about moving up there as soon as I'm done with school. He misses the Rockies from Utah and though these mountains don't even compare, they would still make him happy.

If this picture wouldn't be so blurry, you could see that I have the goofiest smile on my face as I am about to cross the finish line. My goal was to ran at 2 hrs or less and my time ended up being 1 hr 56 minutes 19 seconds. I was so happy and so tired. I finished 81 out of 481 women and 217th out of 775  all runners. The even announced our names as we crossed the finish line; it was a sweet feeling.

So Troy is my coach as he is supposed to find good runs for me and keep me going etc. He is way pumped up after this race and proud of his wife. (Yes, I'm saying that about myself, but he is just being so great about it.) I obviously had a special mix of music for my half-marathon that would last at least for 2 hours. As I passed the 8 mile mark and the songs switched, suddenly I hear his voice saying that he loves me and that I can do this and "see you in the end". I had no idea that he had recorded this message for me. 

So my body is obviously exhausted and my knees are aching,las I imagine they will ache when I'm 80 year old, because there was a good amount of up/down hill running on the course. The first two miles of the race were uphill and I started to wonder if I could finish the other 11. 

So half-marathon down and now we are looking forward to the real thing in San Francisco in August. 

Love-hate relationship

The title describes my feelings with nursing school. Last week I came home every day and I said "I'm not going to be a good nurse" or "I hate nursing school" or "What if I just drop out". Obviously anyone who knows me even decently well knows that I would never drop out of school so my emotions were pretty crazy last week. I have calmed down a lot and I don't have any anxieties at the moment; maybe it is because I only have one more day of school before spring break or because my tests went well this week, either way it feels good to have some sense of control over my life. Also the fact that I didn't have to get up at 5 am this morning brightened my mood quite a bit and the lunch date I had with my hubby at Jamba Juice and Rubios. 

Troy and I had a fun weekend. On Friday, we went on a study date. Yes, we are nerdy but my academic success is a major indicator on my mood and thus our marital bliss. We went out to eat and then headed to the health science library and studied for few hours. There were two other people there and they looked like homeless people who were using the computer. 

On saturday, I ran 10 miles in 1 hr and 33 minutes, which was so exciting since I have never run that far before. Troy rollerbladed next to me and provided encouragement. We also enjoyed hanging out with our friends. On saturday we stopped by at Paul and Heather's place and just chatted for few hours and on Sunday we had dinner with Bridget and Jeremy. Troy and I love being with our friends and are always so amazed how quickly times goes when you are chatting with good friends. Troy does get little nervous about hanging out with Heather and Paul since Heather is about to have their first baby anytime now. Heather is actually delivering at the hospital where I will be doing my internship this summer. 

A little shout out for Troy should be included as well. He has received two awards at work in the last month. One of them is an individual achievement award and the other one is a team award. On top of that he did great on his two tests this week. It is a great blessing to have a hard working husband. Also last night I fell asleep on the couch as he was studying and he carried me to our bed. Gotta love the little romantic and sweet things in life. 

I always try to have some pictures with my posts but I have really no new pics. 

One more clinical day before Spring break and one more week until I go and see my girls in Utah. This week life is very good:)

Tagged

Who do I love? My fabulous, hard working and loving hubby, Troy.
How long have I been married? Two and half fabulous years.

How long did we date? One year exactly. We met on Sept. 10th 2004 and got married on Sept. 10th 2005.

Who is taller? Troy is taller.

Who can sing better? I think we are tie this one.

Who is smarter? I get better grades because I am obsessed with them. I know anatomy, physiology and nursing stuff and Troy is a genius when it comes to math, engineering and computers. So in our own fields of study, we both do well. 

Who does the laundry? I do it unless there are no clean clothes left:) It's not that Troy doesn't want to do it; I just do it before he does it.

Who pays the bills? Troy does.

Who sleeps on the right side? Troy does because his right shoulder is messed up and we can't cuddle if I lay on his right shoulder. 

Who mows the lawn? Troy has a fancy lawnmower that he uses to mow our patch of grass:)

Who cooks dinner? Depends on the week, when my school stuff gets too crazy Troy cooks almost every night. When he is working long hours, I do most of the cooking. We have a great system down:)

Who drives? Troy drives when we are together.

A great example

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with grass stains on my shoes from mowing Sister Schenck's lawn. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbor's children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someones garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." -Marjorie Pay Hinckley

Trashing my blog

So I have been a victim of spamming on my blog. Do people not have better things to do that post random, dirty links on my blog and hope that someone will click on them? It makes me very upset. So to balance out my frustration with dumb people, I will post few happy thoughts here.

1. I got an offer for an externship(same as an internship) at a mother-baby unit at Northwest Medical Center here in Tucson. I was hoping for a L& D position, but they had filled it before I even interviewed.

2. Ben & Jerry's with scripture study. Troy and I have been enjoying few spoonfuls of ice cream every night this week as we do our scripture study. 

3. Girls weekend in March. I'm planning on visiting my girl friends at BYU; girl friends make life so wonderful. 

4. Healthy body. After being sick for few weeks and being around sick people as a nurse, I am so grateful for my healthy body and its amazing ability to adapt. I'm constantly amazed how my body can increase in endurance as I train for my longer runs. I wanted to title one of my posts as "the miracle of human body" and talk about my training and I bet most people would have thought that I'm announcing the arrival of a little Grossarth.

5. Loving husband. This week, like all the other weeks, has been insane and my wonderful husband has cooked for me every night except tonight when he's working overtime. I even got a long foot rub after my 12-hour shift yesterday. (Though he did tell me that I smelled like hospital as he gave me a welcome home kiss. )

6. Sleep. I love sleep! I slept 9 hours last night and I feel like a new person. 

Chocolate Sensation

In spite the fact that Troy has been very sick for the past week, he spoiled me on Valentine's day. We are not big "Valentine's Day people"; I can't even remember what we did the year before. This made Troy's surprises and thoughtfulness much better. Things are never that fun when you expect them. At 5 am on Thursday morning Troy was coughing and it woke me up. With a little boy voice he asked if I would go and make him some chocolate. I was way tired but decided to be a nice wife and show him some love. So I walk to the kitchen and flip the lights on and put the water heater on. As I turned around, I noticed a gift bag and some flowers on the table and I was totally taken up by surprise. First of all, it's 5 am and I was not expecting anything except maybe a nice dinner.

Troy's surprise was a beautiful pearl ring. I absolutely love it. I'm not a big jewelry person nor do I wear or have many fancy things, but it made me very happy:) Thank you, sweetheart!
On Friday night, we went out for our Valentine's Day celebration( or just to have an excuse to enjoy good food). Troy surprised me again with a dinner at The Melting Pot. It was such a fun experience. We had some artichoke spinach cheese fondue and milk and white chocolate fondue. I was in heaven.
They also gave us a meat, sea food and pasta assortment and here is a picture of Troy with his wild mushroom ravioli. I think it looks like an exotic butterfly.
What a blessing it is to be loved and love someone. And the best part is that you don't even need silly things like Valentine's Day to enjoy that blessing!