Life as we know it...CRAZY!

Sadly this post comes with no pictures. Life has been pretty crazy for us lately. Let me give an update...

The week before Thanksgiving Andrew woke up one morning and had a lot of internal bleeding going on. After a little while he passed out because he'd lost so much blood. He ended up in the hospital for 1 week and after it seemed a million tests coming back as normal and one inspired doctor later, we found out he had something called Meckles Diverticulum, which is a little piece of tissue hanging of his small intestine. This a rare condition, found in only 2% of the population and its usually found in kids before the age of 2. Andrew however managed to hold on to this tissue for almost 30 yrs instead. Crazy, huh?! If you want more details just ask :) Well, he had surgery to take care of the issue and a couple weeks later he was back to normal. The Lord truly blessed us during the whole process. It was so neat to see how many people truly care about my little family of 2. Thanks to all for their love and support.

Other than that...since Jan. 3rd I have been working in Missoula and living out of a suitcase during the week. The hotel I'm staying at is really nice and there's a lot to do in this town, but it's been hard to be away from Andrew for so long. Luckily I get along with my coworkers and there's a lot keeping me busy. While we've been apart Andrew has been slaving away at his master's program, so its good that I'm not distracting him. One thing I look forward to while here in Missoula is that I'm playing on a 6s volleyball city league with a coworker. It's been fun and we are undefeated! My biggest project has been applying to college for my brother Jonas, who is serving his mission for our church in Raliegh, North Carolina. He owes me big time! I've probably spent 60 hrs on the application in the last couple of weeks and it's been very stressful. I'm so glad it's done now!

I've got 3 more weeks in Missoula, then 2 in Portland and then I'm home free!!

I got myself a J.O.B.!!!!

Everyone knows that after you graduate from college, the next biggest stressor in life is finding a JOB. Well, after 2 months of applying and interviewing, etc. I finally got one!! I am now working for Frito-Lay as a District Sales Leader in training.

A lot of people are saying...wait, I thought you got your degree in Health Care Administration. I did, so here's the story behind how I got this job. I met this guy named Dennis while I was throwing a fundraiser for the patients at Eastern State Hospital. The fundraiser was a success, we raised a lot of money and Dennis was on the committee that will distribute those funds. The following week in my senior capstone class, we had mock interviews to help us get ready for the real world and Dennis interviewed me. He said I did a great job and I thought jokingly said "do you want to come work for Frito Lay"? So I said "Yeah, anything in this economy right" :) So about 2 weeks later, Dennis called my professor and said "Hey I've got a management position available down in Yakima, can you get me in contact with that girl from Sunnyside who grew up on a dairy farm"? My teacher passed the message on to me and I got in contact with him and a couple interviews later...I am employed!

The training for the position is 9-12 months long in Spokane and then we might have to move down to Tri-Cities or Yakima or potentially anywhere in the Pacific NW, depending on when/where they need someone. Andrew and I are really excited for this new adventure. I start work on August 23rd. The Lord has truly blessed us.

My responsibilities for the job are that I'll need to establish and maintain a good relationships with our store managers and sales reps. I'll need to make sure that my sales reps are delivering the right product at the right time, at the right place, and with the right amount. I'll also have to make sure the reps are doing the promotions and giving a good name for Frito.

During the interviewing process I was able to go down to the Yakima Valley (my hometown) and work as a 3rd party support for a project that Frito Lay is involved in. My friend Heather and I hung out in Sunnyside at my parents house and everyday from about 7-4 we built display racks for Frito-Lay products. Did you know that Frito-Lay has over 20 different brands they own: Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos, Lays, Sun Chips, Rold Gold pretzels, Smartfood popcorn, Cracker Jacks, Funyuns, Baken-Ets, Santitas, Sabritones, Chester's Snacks, Quaker, Grandmas cookies, Stacy's, Spitz, Natural, Baked, Matador jerky, Tostitos, TrueNorth...and the list goes on. There are nearly 20 different types of Doritos, Cheetos, and Fritos alone. I'm amazed with how much they produce.

I'm really excited to start work. I love working! Every Frito-Lay employee I've met so far has been so nice and friendly. I'll be working with some great people and for a great company!

Here's some pics of Heather and I on the job...

One of the weekends on the drive back to Spokane we saw tons of these wind turbines.

They are huge!

This is what the sunset looks like every night in Sunnyside. Beautiful!

It took us a couple of days to reorganize my mom's clothes by type and color.

I wish I had this much :)

Heather and I in our work attire and tools!

We spent most of our days following this truck around with all the

equipment we built to put in each store.

On the weekends, we did find some time to relax!

Trying to look tough with my power drill!

We had such a blast working together! Thanks for coming Heather!!

Graduation!

So, the most exciting thing that has happened recently is that I graduated from college on June 11!!! I got a BA in Health Services Administration from Eastern Washington University. It was good to get that done, not only as a protective measure just in case Andrew ever can't work, but because I hear it will help me be a better mother. I'm glad that I did it! Here are a few pictures from it...

I'm grateful that Andrew put up with all those late night studying sessions I had...he has been so patient these last few years.

My fan club at graduation...boy was it hard to find them in the stands. I looked around the entire ceremony and barely found them at the end!

I love my parents! They've encouraged me a lot during school!

This was a picture of the night I received the Frances B. Houston Award. It is given to the top 20 graduating seniors for their academic achievement and extracurricular involvement. It was pretty cool to get it. For those of you who want to know I graduated with a 3.97 cumulative GPA.
After graduation, we went to eat at Applebees, continued our Star Wars marathon that my little sisters insisted we have and then went down to the Spokane Falls and rode the gondola over the Falls. It was a pretty fun experience. And then we went to IHOP before Mom and Dad had to return back home. It was a great weekend!!!


We walked around and had some fun downtown!!

A picture from the gondola ride.

I love my husband!

The girls...

Waiting to be seated at Applebees...

Evidence of our marathon...

The girls dressed up for it!

Picture from the gondola ride...

Self succiency is the best!

God made dirt and dirt don't hurt! That was the theme of last weeks Family Home Evening. Andrew's parents came over and we weeded our garden and prepared it for planting!!! I've never gardened in my life on my own so I'm super excited! Spokane has a pretty short growing season so I'm not even late in planting one. We haven't put the seeds in yet, planned to today, but Andrew has to work and I'm not doing it on my own :) Here are some pictures after we were done. It only took a couple of hours. I should've taken pictures before we started, it was a mess!!

Andrew and I were trying to pose like these guys, but it didn't quite work out (we didn't have a pitch fork and I don't think we could be that serious if our life depended on it :)

Now I think I'm pretty much caught up on blog postings...I graduate from college next Friday!!! Woo Hoo!!!! More to come on that soon!

Memorial Day Weekend! My Best Friend's Wedding!

This Memorial Day weekend was great! Before we left, I turned in my internship portfolio. It was about a 3-inch thick binder with a lot of stuff in it. I've enjoyed my time at Sacred Heart a lot and I have a couple jobs lined up that I think I can get...just waiting to hear back. On Wed, May 26, my best friend since 1st grade went to the temple because she got married May 29th. Here's a couple pics of us at the Columbia River Temple in the Tri-Cities. For her wedding gift we gave them a beautiful picture of this temple because she gave me one of Mt. Timpanogos, which was where I went to the temple for the first time. It was great!

Thursday we went to Sunny and Nate's reception. I didn't do a great job of taking pictures, I kept forgetting my camera. On Friday we travelled to Twin Falls, which was where she got married. The worst part was that I again forgot my camera. Luckily Dad had an i-phone that I took pictures with. I couldn't believe it. I was sooo mad at myself. Oh well. They got married on Saturday and we caught a temple session between the luncheon and the reception. Andrew and I have now been to 5 temples together :) Can't wait to go to more! Sunny and Nate are moving to South Dakota because he's starting his 3-yr long residency as a family practice doctor. I'm going to miss her, but we vowed to see each other once a year. It's a 7hr drive for both of us to Bozeman, MT so we think we'll be meeting there sometime and will then make a trip to Yellowstone because it's only about an hour or so away. Nate's a good man, I couldn't be happier for her!

We played dodge ball on the trampoline with balls of silly string.

Erica performed a couple Hannah Montana (or is it Miley Cyrus) songs for us with some sweet choreography included!

We had a bbq that Mom made! Those ribs were delish!!

Andrew had a really runny nose all weekend! Poor guy :)

On Memorial Day we visited some friends, dug out some shrubs for Dad and then went to the Dairy Fair and had some really good ice cream. Andrew also had squeaky cheese (cheese before they pound it into blocks) for his first time! Wow, what a weekend!!

College sports has come to an end...

First half of my fan base at my last meet

(minus Andrew who's taking the picture)

Well...a couple of weeks ago I ran my last race ever. It's crazy to be done! I actually have to workout by myself now. I had a huge fan base at the Conference Championships at Weber State. It was great...I felt so loved that my parents, sisters, and husband would drive 10 hours to see me race for less than 15 seconds. Thanks for all the support I've gotten through the years. I ran a 14.68, a new PR my very last race. Placed 10th out of 22, I think. A big thanks to Andrew for supporting me too...he's the one that encouraged to live my dream of doing college sports. After hurting my shoulder playing vball at GU, I thought my college sports days were over, but about a month before starting school at EWU, Andrew encouraged me to run track. I hadn't even thought about that option until he brought it up. I then compared my times to girls that were on the team, e-mailed my future coach, she told me to come out to practice and the rest is history! I love my team. We've had a great couple of years together! I loved running track, but I'm ready for what's next in life, a family!! GO EAGS!!


The other half of my fan base at my last meet :)

They couldn't all fit in the same picture.

My coach and I after my final race...he was a really good coach!

My Jump Squad at Conference, minus Krys, she redshirted :(

Video of our only outdoor home meet, the Pelluer! I won that race!!!

A couple nights ago, we had the EWOOs, an awards program for all athletes at EWU. Some of the awards presented were Best Game, Best Team, Newcomer of the Year, Best Male and Female Athlete, etc. I was nominated and won the Female Scholar Athlete Award. I was surprised I got it, but we got a bobble-head of our mascot Swoop and a plaque and a highlights video was played of my accomplishments on the track and in the classroom. Later on in the night, I sang a song on stage. It was a parody of the Alladin song, "A Whole New World", we changed the lyrics to "A Whole New Field" talking about EWU's new red turf that coming in. It was a lot of fun!

We're Alive!!!

Hey once again it's been a long while since I've posted. I'm not very good at this blogging thing. Sorry. But now I must spend a while updating you on our wonderful life. Here's a couple of items I need to update you on...

SCHOOL...we just found out that Andrew was accepted into the Masters in Teaching program starting June 21. That was sooo exciting for us to hear! It is a very intense 5 quarter long program that I will support him through. I will graduate from college on June 11 and then plan on working while he's getting through his Masters. This last quarter was good. Andrew is now taking a break this spring because he has all his pre-reqs done, but he will be taking 2 independent study courses from BYU to finish his History degree. This spring quarter is going to be great for me. I only have a 10 week long, 20-hr/week internship at Sacred Heart Medical Center (the largest hospital in Spokane) working with the Chief Nurse Executive. Besides that I will have to take my capstone. Cost of books this quarter came out to $6.24. That is pretty awesome huh!?! I'm very excited for the internship. It will give me some good hands-on experience and hopefully will jumpstart my career!

TRACK...3 weeks ago I finished up my last Indoor track season. It was a good season. The Big Sky Conference Championships was at Montana State in Bozeman, MT. I ended up running my fastest time ever while I was there. I didn't place, but I was happy with my time. While there, Andrew and I and Andrew's parents and Uncle Dick wen to the Museum of the Rockies. It was pretty cool. I hope to do a little more at the Outdoor Championships at Weber State in May. The transition into the outdoor season has been good, but really tough. Jon works us to death at times, but it's great. Our first meet is in 2 weeks at the University of Montana. I look forward to it.

This was taken right after my hurdle race at conference.

This picture was taken at the Museum. I'm pointing to the incredible length of a dinosaur's leg (femur of the right lig) and his rib (most right bone). That museum was incredible.

The last picture at our first apartment. It was good to us!

NEW HOUSE...We love it!!! It's been good to us. Major upgrade from the apartment life. We no longer listen to our neighbors vacuuming and yelling at each other in Ukranian every hour of the day. We have great neighbors and it now takes us only 10 mins to get to the freeway!!! It's great! The only true visitors we've had are my little sisters. They came for Valentine's Day on President's Day weekend. We had a blast making each other valentines, making and decorating sugar cookies, and eating heart-shaped waffles. We celebrated Presidents Day by going ice skating (I hope my coach doesn't read this :) It was tons of fun! Nobody hurt themselves, but I'm afraid the little girls walked away with some deep bruises (it was their first time).

These are the waffles we made on Valentine's Day

The cookies we made on Valentine's Day

A picture of us ice skating. It was the girls first time and they loved it!

CHURCH...Andrew is still the YM President. It's a very busy calling, however, he does like it. We only have about 2 boys that come regularly to church and a couple more that join them at mutual. This weekend they are going on a campout, so that should be lots of fun! I am the 2nd Counselor in the primary presidency. It's going great! I just love being around those kids and watching them learn the gospel of Jesus Christ each week. This past week I was in charge of Sharing Time and I narrated the story of Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt while the kids acted it out. It was a huge success. We then watched that same clip that is in the movie The Ten Commandments. They loved it. The point of the lesson was to have the kids learn that the Prophets keep us safe if we listen to them. Another calling we have is that we are the DJs for the Youth Stake Dances. We had a "March Madness" themed dance this past Saturday. It was way better than the dance we had to DJ at on Friday for the older single adult ages 30-70. That was a rough dance. We had to play everything from a 50s waltz to Destiny's Child. That was a challenge. Our playlist disappointed people left and right.

SPRING BREAK...is this week. In a couple of hours I will be on my way to sunny Phoenix, AZ to visit my best friend Sunny. She just got engaged this past week so we now have to go wedding dress shopping, plan her reception, bridesmaid dress shopping, etc. It will be so fun!!! Sadly, Andrew will not being going with me. I'll miss him dearly. I'll be back this Saturday.

BIRTHDAY...I had a birthday , shout Hooray! On the 16th of March I turned 22! I share my birthday with my now 3-yr old nephew Eli. I've realized that birthdays are not as fun as you age. I was watching Eli open his gifts and eat his cool cake that his mom makes each year and his birthday was way cooler :) I was going to have another little nephew born on my birthday, but Jamie (my bro LaDon's wife) had to have him on the 15th at 7:30. Missed it by that much. Oh well, Daniel John is a cute kid and we were just glad that he got out safely.

This is Eli opening the gift we gave him. It was a 400-pg coloring and activity book of Curious George. He loved it!!

Here's a great picture of me. I think I was thinking about how I was going to blow all 22 candles out in 1 blow. Thankfully my little nephew Abram helped me out so we did get it in 1 blow.

I think that's it for now. I really will try a little harder to post more often. I hope to be like Jamie (my sister-in-law) and post so often that I have a picture of my newborn up on the blog just an hour after I have him :)