Crater Lake Adventures!

My sister and her family go to Crater Lake every year and Daniel and I decided to join them this year. ( I really don't know why my font is underlined, but I seem not to be able to change this... oh well). We had such a blast. We loved the weather, the lake, the fishing, the cliff jumping, the campsite, the food, the fear of bear attacks, and the company! We had so much fun, Dan cannot wait to go back!

We hiked about a quarter mile along these rocks to a prime fishing spot. We spent the entire day fishing, catching crawdads, swimming, and... hanging out. It was such a blast.

My super hot husband fishing!

If you look carefully Dan is to the right of the tree. He scaled down that face where the tree is and back up to the edge of the cliff. He didn't end up jumping off he cliff because he couldn't gauge how deep the water was. I've heard at least twice as I'm dozing off to sleep him say, "Man, I should've just jumped." He's so funny... and it's kind of adorable.

Best campsite!

The still blue water. You can see the rocks through the water. That's how clear the water is. Crystal clear!

My adorable and very sweet sister Stephanie!

THE SEQUENCE OF DANIEL'S CLIFF JUMPING!

Phantom ship lookout. The hike we took alone. There were literally no other hikers, which was scary because it was kind of an open area and I was so afraid I was going to see a bear! We even started to talk about what we'd do if we saw a bear.

On our way to our honeymoon...

So, my husband cracks me up. He is so funny. I cannot remember what he was doing but he was trying to commentate something. Too bad I'm a dork, but he's legitimately funny.

This second video is on our honeymoon. We went to the High Desert Museum and while we were there, this weasel or feret or whatever it was, was trying to attack us through the glass. It was really funny, but sad at the same time.

Life is Peachy

Stephanie, Isaiah and I went to Jossy Farms to pick peaches last week. It was the perfect day to pick peaches and they were perfectly ripe. It was my first time picking peaches and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
Isaiah and I flashing some signs before our picking adventures began.

Action shot. (No, it was not posed... [Ok, maybe it was]).

The kid is stinkin' adorable and really loved his peaches. But he started to get preoccupied with the dozens of bees and abandoned his dutiful role as peach picker.

My cute sister with her peaches. Isn't she a little twit!? (I mean that in the sweetest way)

I ended up picking 51 pounds of peaches and was able to can 31 quarts of peaches, two peach cobblers, and two freezer bags of sliced peaches for yummy peach jam!!!

When it comes to my peaches, I get serious!

The joys of our labors!





Some shots from around the farm. It really was a beautiful place!

On a More Serious Note: The Key to Happiness

I was reading today in the Ensign a talk given by President Uchtdorf in General Conference called “Happiness, Your Heritage” and was immediately inspired that I needed to read this talk. He states the greatest happiness we might ever have is the Happiness of our Heavenly Father. We cannot know exactly what our Fathers’ happiness is because His ways are greater than ours. However, His work and His glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. He then states that He is able to accomplish these two goals because He is a God of creation and compassion. So it then follows that we, as His children, might experience that kind of happiness as we create and as we are compassionate.
There is a patient in our intensive care unit that mystifies us all. In morning rounds yesterday, I joked with the doctors that we needed to call HouseMD to figure it out. No one knows what is wrong with this lady. She has been intubated (on a breathing machine) for almost two weeks now and her pneumonia has not improved. No one knows what kind of pneumonia she has, as it is not responding to our treatment. The doctors seem grim about her outcome and she will need to get a tracheotomy. Despite being intubated, this lady is almost completely awake. We usually sedate our patients who are intubated, but for her, we have not. When I came to work yesterday, she was very anxious and depressed. She was tapping on her bedrails, bouncing her legs up and down in such a way as to express anxiety. My first reaction, as many of us nurses in intensive care, is to sedate. But before I increased her propofol drip or her fentanyl, something stopped me. I started to think of all those nursing interventions I could do without medicine that might help the situation. Working in intensive care, I am often so busy with trying to stabilize that often we forget to care for the spirit of the person. I leaned over and asked if she’d like to listen to some music. She nodded yes. I then proceeded to list different genres of music, as she could not speak. When I got to classical, she nodded yes. I then went and got a few CD’s from our music collection that she might like. We started with Andrea Bocelli and she instantly calmed. I then noticed how awful her skin looked, as she is on a steroid that makes skin quite fragile. Because she was my only patient at the time, I had extra time to give her some TLC. I applied lotion to her skin and gave her a massage and talked to her. As I did this, I noticed on my monitor, her heart rate slow, her breathing slow, her blood pressure lower and the anxiety decrease. And then something interesting happened, as I did these things for her, I felt a sense of happiness come over me.
I have always felt I was a creative person. When I was younger, I loved to paint, even if I never had lessons nor was any good. It brought me happiness to create something individual to me. I also have always loved to cook. As I create meals, I feel a sense of joy because I am using my creativity for good. Cooking for others is a passion of mine. I had a friend who told me that they knew I loved them because I show my love in my cooking. Recently I have had a greater desire to learn photography. Some love to take pictures of nature, architecture and what have you, but I love humanity. I want to photograph God’s greatest creation: His children. I had this thought a few years ago about what my vision is for myself. I have been educated as a nurse and have that skill available to me to teach others. Ever since I was a young girl, I had a strong desire to care for the sick of the World. International work excited me and filled me with a sense of adventure and accomplishment. In fact, thinking of nursing in Africa got me through nursing school when I thought I couldn’t do it anymore. As I have grown in my profession, my vision for my international endeavors has shifted from caring to teaching. As the scriptures teach, give a man a fish, he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, he eats for life. (In fact, I don't know if that's scripture or just some old adage but, oh well). This applies to international nursing. My greatest goal would be to travel the world and teach nurses in Africa how to care for Africans. If I ever accomplish this great goal of mine, I think I will feel a happiness I’ve never felt before in my life. And this just in: I'm taking a sewing class! I found a sewing class through PCC and am very excited to learn another means to be self-sufficient. I love being self-sufficient!!!
So often in life we look towards things that won't make us happy. Doing things. What I mean by that are those things that are fun but not truly lasting in their happiness. Yes, it's fun run marathons and compete or go mountain biking, but I'm not a believer that those things will sustain happiness. As President Uchtdorf so eloquently proclaims, happiness comes through creation and compassion.

Learning New Things

Canning Adventures!!!

My fantastically crafty friend Beth has long been a wonderful canner. I mentioned to her my desire to learn how to can and she offered to be my teacher. We each canned fifteen pounds of beans. At first I was really scared and intimidated by the pressure canner. But Beth needed to leave to pick up some dry cleaning and left me to man the two pressure canners, within minutes I felt as comfortable as can be and had a great time! She was such a good teacher and we had so much fun! Since the beans, I've also canned tuna. This weekend I'm canning pears and peaches. I am more excited for the peaches than anything! I really like canning. It's interesting how the things that your mom did when you were younger that used to annoy you (like canning, sewing, clipping coupons, etc) now become the things that excite you when you're older!

Here's proof that we did two pressure canners at a time. Even with two canners going, we were canning over six hours!!! Our townhouse got to about 85 degrees inside. We were sweaty!
The fruits of our labors! This is my portion of the beans. I think they're beautiful!

Husband Doting

I know I've posted once already today, but as I was getting dressed for the gym to go meet my husband, I got to thinking how lucky I am to be married to Daniel. As I was thinking of all his wonderful qualities and the things he does for me, my heart filled with love and I felt I had to share. I am so blessed and here's why:

1. Daniel makes the bed almost every day.

2. Since we've been married, I've done the laundry maybe five times. He usually, washes, folds, and puts away all our clothes.

3. I cook and he ALWAYS cleans after the meal. Even on nights when he cooks, he still cleans.

4. Daniel wakes up just slightly before I do on days I work. Most days I can expect to find a love note on the counter from him. It always brings a smile to my face.

5. Even though I get annoyed when he first does it, he keeps me in check with my spending.

6. He supports and encourages me in all my endeavors.

7. He never pushes his beliefs on me. I never feel like I need to do something just because I know he feels one way or the other. I feel freedom to do the things I think are best for me.

8. He is SOOO forgiving. As I bumble along this journey of marriage, he always immediately accepts my apologies and never makes me go through a 'make up' stage.

9. He loves my family! You always hear stories about the husband getting annoyed of spending 'too much time' with the in-laws. Dan has never said a word about it, in fact he loves to spend time with my family. We live just a mile from three of my sisters and that was a selling point for him to move where we did. I love that I married a family man.

10. He is amazing at remembering morning prayer (I remind of nightly prayer... clearly you can tell he is a morning person and I'm a night person). He does amazing FHE lessons and I am always impressed at how amazing he is at bearing his testimony. He has a strong testimony of the gospel, and shares it willingly yet is never pushy and NEVER EVER judgmental. He's taught me so much about not being judgmental and not engaging in gossip. I really lucked out with him!

Beach Trip with our Friends!

The Longs' at the Beach!

I wrote The Longs' on the sand, but failed miserably to make it look presentable, so my very neat and tidy husband wrote The Longs' which is pictured. Of course it looks perfect!
And the funniest picture of all time: Branden with the sad face in front of the 'me' in the sand! What a crack up!

Later that night we headed over to Del Ray Beach for a bonfire and hot dogs. It was Chad's first time ever to roast hot dogs on the beach! Crazy! The group shot took about ten times before we got one that worked! Aren't we all so cute!?

And it wouldn't be us if we didn't have a goofy shot! Beth can't do goofy so Chad just made her laugh. And I'm pretty sure my goofy face just looks constipated!

Our reduced fat hotdogs on whole wheat buns... We live on the wild side!

Our wonderful friends Chad and Beth. Beth is my best friend and Chad is Dan's... And they are an item. No pressure but we hope it works out!!! Love you guys!