DAY 4:

I had to work a little bit today so Bride took the truck and had her own adventure. Well, she went to the bookstore but I think it was sort of like an adventure. When I got home we went downtown and bought some delicious bread for our dinner and then we opted for a little bike ride. This is the foot bridge we have to cross to get from our house across the river to the Greenbelt.

We went all the way down to the park to swing on the swings and while we were there, we saw the most adorable puppy. The boy on the swing next to us said it was his and gave us permission to pet her. Which we did.

That night we opted for Ladies Night at Les Bois Sports park. Bride and Russ both did a little betting but I'm pretty sure I'm forming a moral objection to horse racing. I'll get back to you on that...

This horse's name is Mr Salty Jones. How do they name race horses?

DAY 3:

Bride slept in until so late today. I'm not letting her do that again. At least she won't be able to say I never let her sleep in, that would be a lie because I let her today. Like I said, Bride slept in today and while she did so, I bought a sweet raft and oars for our river floating excursion.

After, we went to the Winget's to hang out. We swam at the pool for a while and then we went back up to the house, had dinner, played missionary tag, made more Muddy Buddies, played Catch Phrase, had a dance party and ate strawberry shortcake. All good things.

We came home and blew up the raft, you know, to check it out. Oh, and also to lay in it.

When can I wake her up?

DAY 2: 

It was Sunday so, you know, nothing too too exciting. I asked Bride to describe church in one word: annoying was all she could say. Ah, the joys of Primary. It wasn't all bad though. One of the girls in my class raised her hand and asked, "Can I give your sister a hug?" 

We napped and ate watermelon and Muddy Buddies. 

We watched Cloverfield on the projector, promptly became motion sick and went to bed. 

DAY 1:
I remember to grab my camera on the way out the door but forget to bring it into the airport to document the arrival. Next best thing - getting buckled in immediately following the arrival.

Otis is thoroughly excited about sharing his bed with Bride.

After a quick trip to the fruit stand, Boise State, the Saturday market, McU's Sporting Goods, and the grocery store, we all took a nap.

We opted for a baseball game tonight. It was the 7th inning stretch before I realized I was rooting for the wrong team...

We had Casanova pizza for dinner last night. Holy crap. Can you see those chunks of garlic? The Comet: tomato sauce, mozzarella, basil leaves, sliced tomatoes, pepperoni and extra garlic. SO good. So good.

Now let me tell you about the tree on our house. Saturday night was very windy. I was at work. The tree in our front yard blew over in the wind and landed on the roof. It knocked the top of our chimney loose but at least it didn't fall totally off, that might have caused some damage. Poor Russell was up on the roof with a hand saw cutting all the small branches off but the trunk of this thing is huge! We're going to have to rent a chainsaw.

Bride will be here Saturday and I plan on thoroughly documenting the happenings of our days (as if you weren't all DYING to come visit me in Boise already). So, you have that to look forward to.

It's totally summer now, isn't it?

This might be a problem...

This song is so catchy! I keep singing I don't give a hoot about what you think. Rivers' mustache though...

Remember when I was telling you guys about the book group? How I wanted to read a book that some other members didn't want to read? How I picked that book anyway? Well, we meet this Thursday (as in tomorrow) and guess who has to work. If you guessed me, you're a genius. We are rescheduling but I think it's only because the girl who put the book group together doesn't want to lead this discussion. Yikes.

My thermostat is broken and a couple nights ago I think the AC was on all night long (hello power bill) and I woke up to a brisk 64 degrees. It's hard enough to get out of bed at 4:30 in the morning. What a bummer.

I bought a new sprinkler and I'm hoping that we'll be able to water all of the lawn at once without moving the sprinkler twenty times. Wish me luck, will you?

I have decided since my trip to Vegas that the most accurate way to capture the true happenings of the day is to give your camera to the closest 6 year old. After you delete the random photographic evidence of the pictures hanging on the walls and the baskets on the table, you have painted a pretty complete picture. I could not stop laughing when I went through these.

Don't let me forget to tell you about the Cherry Festival in Emmett, ID. That was some good people watching, I tell you what.

We had so much fun in Las Vegas. I counted the times that Russell said, "it's SO hot" and I'll give a prize to whoever guesses closest. I'm just joking, I didn't count but if I had a prize to give, it would go to whoever guessed highest. I have a few pictures to post - Isabel took them for me. A vacation is fun but who are we kidding, we're just putting off all the work until we get home - I have so much crap to do.

We would have stayed longer but I had to get back to work and let me tell you, it was an interesting day. I had to go to the morgue and pick up a patient's baby. It was 19 weeks. I don't know what complications induced her labor but this is the third baby that the couple lost. They wanted to see him one more time before they were discharged. Like I said, it was an interesting day.

There is a woman in my ward that trims her fingernails in church on Sunday every week. I had the pleasure (sick) of sitting in front of her last week. She gets out her fingernail clippers and starts trimming and all I can think about is one of those fingernails getting in my hair, hitting me in the face, ricocheting off the pew in front of me and flying into my mouth (weirder things have happened). Now, I kept it together last time but I seriously doubt that I will be capable of keeping my mouth shut another time. Do I just avoid sitting near this person or should I send her an anonymous note? Where do you cut your fingernails?

There's this song. I am SO not saying what it is - that is how terribly embarrassing it is. I don't want to like it. I really do not want to like it. But it's so catchy. Dang you XM radio! Let me just say it belongs to a genre that I don't listen to (or as a rule like at all) but they play this song on "The Blend" which I regularly find myself listening to at work. It gets stuck in my head so bad. I hate it. I swear I do.

I've got a long road trip ahead of me. I've downloaded a bunch of Learn Spanish podcasts. Anyone have any other suggestions? Help me out, will you?

Long ago, before we ever got a dog and when we were not allowed to enter the house through the front door, a certain member of our family liked to get out of their work clothes as soon as they entered the laundry room through the garage door. I somehow have adopted a similar habit.

This semester in school, I overheard a teacher saying that she saw someone in hospital scrubs at the grocery store and it really grossed her out. I can't stop thinking about it. After work, I can't wait to get home and out of my scrubs. I can't shake this idea that they are so disgustingly dirty - especially since every day that I've worked, we've had someone on isolation for C. diff. You know, the diarrhea that is so bad it KILLS you! Look it up, I swear, you DIE from diarrhea.

I was completely and totally traumatized in middle school. I came to this realization this week, when, after 7 years not opening a locker, I got my new locker at work opened on the first try AND remembered my combo after just one day.

My new job is going really well. I don't really know why I was so worried about it. It seems like our patients are usually pretty nice and anxious to go home so they try to do as much as they can by themselves. On my first day, we got to go down and pick someone up from recovery - that never happens - and that was kind of fun. I also have had a bunch of patients on contact isolation which means every time I go into their room, I have to gown up and wear a mask and everything. I worked Thursday and Friday night and they trained me on the unit clerk's job. It's pretty boring but you do get to review and complete doctor's orders which is kind of fun. You also get to put charts together including operative notes. Did you know that if you have surgery and have something removed, they take pictures of it?

Why does the headline Clogged Toilet on Space Station No Laughing Matter make me laugh?

Also, the devil invented chores.

First day at my new gig today. The girl showing me around was so nice and really didn't make me do anything. I just followed her around. Talking to the patients is pretty easy for me - I like to talk. I feel a little like I'm not exactly sure what is appropriate and what isn't. Does that make any sense? I want to joke around with everyone.
I want to tell you all about the patients that we saw today - we started out with 6 and by the end of my shift we had 9 (two from the ER and one post-op) - but I'm pretty sure it's illegal. Let me just say, it's only day one and I am seriously thanking the Big Guy for my health...

Mom asked me what I was doing for the long weekend. I didn't know it was a long weekend until she said something. I went to a couple training classes this week for my new gig. I went up to my unit and talked to my boss and guess what - I start Monday. I am excited and a little bit nervous. No long weekend for me. We didn't have plans anyway (unless you consider "lay around" a plan). We have chores to do. I'm going to try to finish all my chores this afternoon because it feels so much better to sleep in on Saturday morning when you don't have all those stupid chores hanging over your head. Anyway, Russell thinks that we need to trim the bottom branches off this tree. I don't want to! Tell him these don't need to be trimmed, will you? Look how shady and lovely it looks under that tree! Don't you just want to have a picnic under there?

I had a class to go to yesterday for my new hospital job. I practiced doing fingersticks and fecal occult blood tests (and yes it absolutely is as gross as it sounds). I have another class this morning and then I have about 25 training things to watch online. Just a couple things first:

1. I made peanut butter squares and some chocolate mint cookies last week for the book group. I told Russell he should be eating them faster, you know, to get them out of the house. He said, "these? Are not my favorite treats." Apparently, according to Russell, it is completely unnecessary to try any new recipes.

2. I had a very weird dream last night. Bride was pregnant and I went over and was trying to get the baby to move around and he pushed his face against her stomach and was talking to me. Freaky! Where the heck did that come from?