Happy Christmas Apartment 60!

This year my apartment decided to celebrate Christmas together. But since we will all be leaving for our separate homes for the actual Christmas day, we decided that December 13th would serve as our very own Christmas Day, and it really did feel like Christmas. First of all, the 12th ("Christmas Eve"), when we were all home after our Saturday night festivities, we sat together and read Luke 2 and sang some Christmas carols. It was lovely. Then we went to bed. Sunday morning, Alison woke us all up at 8:30, turned on the Christmas tree lights and some Amy Grant Christmas music and we all filed out to the living room, where Santa had come!! Suzanne was even in town and joined us for the fun. Ali got some great gray chucks (you are welcome! ), Marie got a sweater and an ice cream scoop, Jenny got a scarf, gloves, a movie and sauces, I got portable speakers and a movie and Suzanne got some great dollar store specials (we didn't know she was coming until last minute). We all got some yummy chocolate and fudge and some Indian delights. It was a great Christmas morning and really did feel like Christmas.

My wonderful roommates after opening all of our treasures :) We look good in the morning huh?

Exhausted after opening all those presents!

Then we went to church, where we had our Christmas sacrament meeting. That is definitely my favorite meeting of all year and this one did not disappoint. Brian and I sang a duet to "Savior of the World" and Ali played the piano for us. It was wonderful. There were tons of other musical numbers that were all phenomenal. It was just great. A very wonderful last Sunday in my ward here. After church, since we all looked significantly better then than we had before church, we had a little roommate photo shoot.

I really love my roommates a whole lot. They are the best and have made for a fantastic semester.

I just absolutely love this girl!

Then, I made our apartment, plus Brian and Lee, Christmas dinner! It was delicious, and all recipes from my cooking class this semester. My roommates have been bugging me to actually produce the food that I talked about eating all semester, so this was a good opportunity to do so! There was this great baked chicken and seasoned potatoes and homemade biscuits and spinach poppy seed salad. For dessert we had black-bottomed cherry cream cheese pie. It was basically amazing if I do say so myself.

The best part about this Christmas is that when the day was done, we didn't experience the usual "Christmas is over" let down. We still have another whole Christmas to have! I love my roommates and I am very thankful for them for helping me out this semester and being there for me. They are the best and I will miss them so much! So..Happy Christmas Ali, Jenny and Marie!! And Merry Christmas to everyone!

Done with clinical!

Yay! I am finished with clinical! I will not have to wear these "beautiful" byu scrubs for another two years. Kinda nuts. But I hate these scrubs so it is ok. I LOVED my clinical group this year. Every single one of these girls are (or is? NOT an english whiz) incredible. I have loved spending the hours to and from the hospital with you guys and will miss you terribly! And thanks to my clinical instructor who was the best ever!! Thanks Ron! Thanks for all the laughs and the help to get through the long clinical days! Everyone but me will be going on to finish up school next semester in their various capstone placements as I head to Texas! Kinda strange as I have finished up clinical this semester because the end of clinical really means that the semester is coming to a close. And this year I will not be coming back for a while. So strange to think about. But it has been just an absolutely amazing semester and the girls in this picture have had a big part in that. Love you girls!


My GREAT clinical group: Lakin, Melissa, Heidi, Jessica, Michelle, Michelle, Me and Lindsey!

Christmas time is here!!

Its official. It feels like Christmas! It took a little longer this year than in the past, but the several inches of snow that fell today and the trees (yes, plural) in our apartment make it feel official!! On Sunday our apartment had a little tree decorating party. We had a few friends over and Marie's brother, sister-in-law and their two adorable children came to help decorate the tree and drink hot chocolate and eat Christmas brownies and listen to Christmas music! It was just wonderful! I love the way our decorations look and I cannot wait for Christmas!We went to a tree lot and found the perfect tree for our apartment. A REAL Christmas tree in our living room!! Can life get any better?!

My roommates and Lee getting all the ornaments situated (Thanks to Marie's mom for bringing them down)Decorating the tree!

Delicious Christmas Brownies :)

Our living room is very festive. We have our very own Christmas forest.

Series of Most Unfortunate Events.

So this last Wednesday was quite the day. Alison has written it quite well on her blog so you should go over there to see it. The post is called Burgerless and Embarrassed and it is really quite a hilarious story. And what a night.

And in some news. I got sick. For real sick. And I blame every member of my family plus two of my roommates for my current situation. I knew it was too good to be true to avoid illness surrounded by three strep throats, six colds, hacking coughs from every direction and so much snot for an entire week. So I sound like a man and cannot sing at all. Hence the embarrassment part of last wednesday. But for that story you have to click on the link above... :)

Also, our soccer team won yet another game, so we are going to the finals next week! Yay!

Magnificent!

So this semester I had some credits I needed to fill and was not interested in taking a really cognitively demanding course, so what do you take?? Cooking!! Its actually a lot of fun and I am learning a lot. I come home all the time with new tips for my roommates about certain things. I don't think they appreciate it as much as I think they should, but whatever. I am taking the class with several of my good nursing friends, so it is a blast and we do very little work, but make incredible things and then stuff ourselves every Monday afternoon. Its the best. This last week we had a large group project entitled the "magnificent meal". Basically we had to come up with a complete menu, organize and budget accordingly and then we had two hours to make the whole meal plus complete table settings. It worked out better than any of us imagined it would, and our random table decorations were labeled as "creative and unique" :) Here are some pictures from the madness. Check out the wreath especially. Its awesome.

Hey Sarah...cut those carrots!

Our table setting...very eclectic but I think it pulled together alright. Enough.

This was our "centerpiece". Just take a look at that glorious wreath. Wow.

My wonderful cooking friends!

"Dear Sister Robinson....

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the TEXAS LUBBOCK MISSION. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, February 3, 2010. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the English language.

...

Sincerely, Thomas S. Monson"

Not a bad letter huh? So here is the official word. TEXAS! I got my call last Thursday and after getting everyone on Skype or speaker phone, I found out that this is where I have been called. Its not exotic and its not foreign (at least not in the usual sense of the word), but I am so excited. I leave on my half birthday which is kinda fun and I will get to preach to the people the minute I hit the ground. I cannot believe that its for real, but its here! I will get to finish this semester and then prepare for everything before I take off!
My mission covers most of the western half of Texas and the eastern half of New Mexico. Even though I was called English Speaking, I am sure I will learn some Spanish by default.

I tried to put the video of my actual opening on here but it is just not working. Maybe later. Its pretty funny. But I am so excited. Here I come TEXAS!

"I wanna go on a mission"

So. Here is the deal. My papers went in TODAY. Which means there is a possibility that my call will be mailed out on FRIDAY which means that I could know where I am going NEXT WEEK! Now that is the earliest possibility. They could take a few weeks before issuing my call really, but lets just hope for a quick call :) For some reason I have been keeping this whole process on the DL, but I suppose with the call basically on its way, its no use being quiet. So... hey world!! I am going on a mission!!!!

This is my missionary head shot. I think I look quite like a sister missionary...

Conference Weekend!

So I had a great conference weekend. First of all, I got to go to conference!! Somehow in my years of being at college here, I have never had the opportunity to actually attend a session of conference in Salt Lake. This year however, Ali was able to get an extra ticket and was kind enough to let me come with her! I loved every minute of it and had a great time. I especially loved being able to sustain the prophet with thousands of other saints all at the same time. And singing together in one loud amazing group. And of course hearing the speakers right in front of me and feeling of the incredible spirit that they were able to bring to that building. And it helped that the tickets were actually pretty great seats so that was a great first experience. Thanks Ali!

Then this weekend I got to attend the football game, thanks to Marie's brother, and the woman's soccer game. Turns out that I love soccer. Never saw that one coming. I love to watch it and I really enjoy playing it. I joined a intramural soccer team this year and granted I am not very good, but I think it is just the best! So fun. Anyway, the games were so fun to go to with friends and we had a good time.
Ben and I at the football game
Marie and Brian as BYU defeated USU!
Soccer Game with Ali and Mike - BYU beat UofU!

Midterms have been going full swing and I am somehow keeping my head above water. In fact, writing this post is putting off studying for yet another one I need to take tomorrow...Maybe I should get on that. But other than that school is going great. I start ICU this week and I am officially done working with the patients at the mental hospital. It was a good experience, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't glad to be done. ICU should be a completely different experience and more up my alley.

And my apartment really likes puzzles it turns out. This took us all of one week to finish all four...

Boondoggles

Today I saw a grown man tying a boondoggle key chain on campus. Made me happy. And made me think of this girl. Which also made me happy.

Its been quite a while.

Well, just in case there are a few people that still periodically check this blog, I thought I might update it a bit. Not that there is much to update with, and I don't have any pictures...but at least there have been some changes in the last little while.

I moved! I now live in a great little condo south of campus that is much larger and much nicer than Monticello was. And I live with the greatest roommates on the planet, so life can't get much better. I am still doing nursing and working at the Utah State Mental Hospital as part of my psych rotation and at IMC for my ICU rotation. I am liking this semester a lot and it has been fun meeting up with my fellow nursing friends after several months apart. I technically only have two more semesters including this one before I graduate, so thats weird to think about. Decided to join the racquetball team again so I am busy with that. Still in the anatomy lab, this time as a group leader, so I have a few more responsibilities this time around. Its still a lot of fun.

It feels good to be back in provo after being gone for a summer. Not too much is going on, but life is great! I love it!

Summoned

I have been summoned. And its my civic duty to be on the jury. But I'm not even registered to vote! How'd they find me? I hear its from the drivers license. To be quite honest, I have always thought it would be interesting to be on a jury. However, they want me there September 28. Slight problem with the fact I will be in school in PROVO at that time. I tried to get exempted, but they said no. So I can instead reschedule for the week I am back in Washington. Unfortunately that is over Christmas. So I may spend my Christmas break sitting in a court room. Can't wait. Perhaps it will be a controversial case and I will end up on Oprah. Yeah, thats possible.

SYTYCD

This week my family has made the comments that I am obsessed and addicted to the show "So You Think You Can Dance". And well...I will admit it...I am!!! And I don't see any problem with that. It's quite possibly the greatest show ever made and I love it. And as far as obsessions and addictions go, I think its fairly mild. And really...if you watch the show, its easy to see why I am obsessed. These people are incredible. Absolutely crazy good dancers. And while the judges annoy some people, I actually kinda like them. They make me laugh and they actually know about dancing and what it takes to be a good dancer. And they have power to kick people off as well for a while which makes it more legit. I basically love everything about it. I am so excited that they are doing another season in the Fall, which means I don't have to wait very long to see more of my favorite show. The top ten dancers also go on tour together which I think would be one of the best shows to go to ever. Personally. So if you ever wonder what Megan is up to on Wednesday night between 8-10pm and Thursday 9-10pm...the answer is simple. She is busy. Watching SYTYCD. Call if you want to join her. Everyone is welcome. Last season I would watch with a big group, usually in apartment 31 with their giant TV. Now, its usually just me and whomever in my family wants to join. Anyway you watch it though..you know its going to be good. Watch it...You won't regret it.

Workin' hard for the money....

This is where I work. Toyota of Kirkland. Sure I could have been a CNA or done something more towards my major. But I figured...I am going to be in health care for the REST of my life. Why not do something kinda new and different? So, lucky for me, I had an in to Toyota, with Jenna working there for 7 months already and I already knew the service manager and together, I got a job. I am not sure what my official title is actually, but I just do a bunch of things. Number one, I am a shuttle driver. That means I drop people off and pick people up when their car is being worked on. When I am not driving all over the east side, I welcome people to the service drive and move cars back and forth throughout the lot. I work with a bunch of crazy people, but its a lot of fun actually. And I get to work with Jenna for a couple hours each day so that is a lot of fun. I guess when I first started and Jenna and I would walk around together people kept asking each other if we were a package deal or something. So, its a random summer job, but hey...its a great time.

Oh...Hello!

So its been a long time since I have posted and a lot of things have happened. So sorry, its gonna be a long one...

I am officially finished with my study abroad in Taiwan. I learned so many wonderful things there about the people and different cultures. I loved these people and they were so kind and very easy to love. I miss them and am grateful for all the pictures that we have to remind me of the fun times that we had and the people that I got to know so well. Of course we had a final, farewell dinner with all the nurses and administrators and doctors that we worked with. It was a great way to say goodbye and enjoy their enthusiasm and excitement one more time. I tell ya...it takes a lot of energy to be with these people, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Gam Bei! They love toasting!

They presented each of us with our own scroll with our names in chinese with the hospital name and things. In the middle it means peace and safety forever. Or something like that...

Two of my cute community nurses. They were the ones I spent the most time with. I love them so much!

After I was done with my "school" trip, Whitney and I headed up to Taipei where I was heading to Adam and Kay's house where Jenna had been for a couple days and Whitney was meeting her parents. After collapsing and nearly being trampled in the train station (really funny story actually) and almost missing our stop (another funny story) Whitney and I made it to Taipei in one piece. I spent a week with Adam, Kay, Lizzy, James and Jenna, tramping around Taipei and having a great time. It was fun to just be on vacation...no hospitals and no papers to worry about. And it was very fun to hang out with my family! I hadn't seen Adam and his family in a long time, and never met James so it was great.

This was a funny little paddleboat that Lizzy and I took for a spin. I was soaked and it was hilarious.

We went on a beautiful hike together and then hit the beach. It was a great day.On the Ferris Wheel! Jenna was scared out of her mind...and Lizzy was loving it!! We rented bikes and rode along the coast. It was really funny and really beautiful.

Then, Jenna and I headed off together to go to Hong Kong. Boy, that was an adventure. After checking into our very spacious and secure hostel room (insert high amounts of sarcasm...) we headed out on the town. This place is busy! People of all ethnicities and backgrounds everywhere and huge buildings made for quite the atmosphere. We were there two days and two nights. We went to several markets, went on several hikes and saw thousands of buddahs. We had a great time together and were happy to have this adventure just together. Thursday poured as we left Hong Kong, and I left Asia after living there for six weeks. I knew I was going to miss it terribly.

High-fives for the Big Buddah as the mist comes in.

At the temple of 10,000 Buddahs. This hill was covered with these golden buddahs. Each with a different expression and position.

The main temple for the 10,000 buddahs. It was filled with tiny buddahs everywhere.

On a rock atop the wisdom path, with an incredible view.

The famous Tai O Fishing Village stilt houses.
Our last morning in Hong Kong, on the 42nd floor of the bank of China tower. It was pouring.
The entrance to the compound where our hostel was located. It was...interesting.

From Hong Kong, I boarded a flight to Taipei, a flight from Taipei to LA, and a flight from LA to Salt Lake. I gained 3 hours coming back to the states and lived Thursday, twice. That was a long day. I stayed at Laura's house that night where after being awake for 32 hours, I crashed. It has taken me quite a while to get over that jet lag thing and I might be finally adjusted. I spent a couple days in Utah before coming up to Seattle where I will spend the rest of the summer. I took 5 separate flights in 1 week, so needless to say, I am a little sick of airplanes. But it made for an awesome adventure and experience. Now I am starting work this week, replacing some much needed funds that I depleted in Taiwan :) It has been a great summer so far and I am excited for a break from school. One that I haven't had in a long time. I will always remember the people I met and the experiences I had and this summer will be one that I will cherish the rest of my life!!

Sorry for such a long post....