Ambien....my favorite drug!

I hate having insomnia! And after a night of absolutely no sleep, I am extra grateful for Ambien CR.

I sent my new prescription in to be renewed and my order has not come yet. I had taken my last pill on Friday and so I stayed up extra late last night so that I would be really tired when bedtime came and hopefully sleep at least half decent. That idea flopped. I tossed and turned and was wide awake all night. Zero sleep! (By they way, that makes you feel REALLY crummy the next day.)

I am so grateful for that small voice of inspiration though. I was cleaning this morning and went to throw my empty pill bottle in the garbage and had the thought, "Check the refills. Maybe you still have one refill on this bottle." That particular bottle was one that I had refilled at Walgreens instead of my mail-order company. Lo and behold, it had one refill on it! :) I was so relieved! The refill is only for 8 tablets but hopefully it will tide me over until my refill comes in the mail.

I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight!

My latest pet

About a month ago I went out on my porch to water my tomato and pepper plants and my flowers. On my way back into the house to fill my watering can, something caught my eye creeping across my house. At first I thought it was a tarantula (thank goodness it wasn't) and then I realized that it was a salamander! There were a bunch of them in the pond at the entrance of my complex earlier this summer but when I've gone back to show them to people they weren't there.
I caught this one and took it to the high school. We put it in an aquarium in one of the other biology teacher's classroom. It is fun to watch it swim because it's so fast but it also likes to sit there and do nothing. Now he/she just needs a name!

Personal Injury...The dangers of football games!

It was inevitable that it would occur sometime.
After 12 years at AF I finally suffered my first personal injury at a football game. I was walking down the back of the sidelines to the south endzone at the quarter change. One of my players pushed another one, he knocked into another player, who stepped back onto my foot as I was walking by. His cleat went right off the inside of my big toe.

Wow! Talk about pain! It was killing me! My whole foot ached for an entire quarter. I could feel blood in my shoe and kept waiting for it to come through the top of my shoe but it didn't. After the game was over I was finally able to check it and the photos show the result.

My toenail on my big toe was completely ripped off, root and all! No wonder it hurt so bad! I couldn't believe it. It had hurt, but I thought that my toe and foot might be scraped and have some cleat bruises on it. Boy was I wrong. So now the waiting begins for my toenail to grow back. To save everyone else from the continued ugliness, I will be buying stock in bandaids since I'll be wearing them every day to cover it up. I also walk the sidelines now with my hands out to create a bubble around myself. I suggest any of you who work with football do the same.

Time and all it's frustrations

Why is it that sometimes time flies and other times it seems to stand still? I have classes that it seems I have all the time I need to get through the information I have prepared and the next period I feel like I'm cramming that same information down my students' throats. We have multiple modern technologies (cell phones, computers, email, microwaves etc.) that are meant to save time and yet all they REALLY do is allow us to cram more into our days.
I have been trying to figure out how to get everything that I'd like to done in 24 hours without wiping myself out: praying, reading my scriptures, teaching, athletic training, working-out, advising, church calling, social life, supervising students, reading, etc. I've figured out how to do it....never sleep.
I have found, however, that I am better busy than bored. I actually get a little bit of anxiety, especially over Christmas Break, when I don't have to be anywhere. I am getting better at time management although I still need to cut unnecessary things out of my life. It is definitely a work in progress. I appreciate those around me who have helped me in my quest and have provided opportunities to have a life; My principal for giving me an extra athletics period, Byron and Niki for asking me to play in their softball team, my co-workers and student trainers who make my jobs easier. Hopefully, as I get more organized, things will open up more and more. Here's hoping for a less stressful, less time crammed, more fun-filled life.

Last weeks with Jack!

The following are a few of the videos I (and Allan) shot of Jack his last few weeks here in Utah. 1. I love how he cracks himself up and gets giddy goofy sometimes. 2. Pool time! Our goal was to get him used to going under the water and jumping in. He took baby steps and would jump off of my leg and into the pool if he could hang onto my thumbs. When he got used to doing it a bit he'd exclaim, " All by myself!" even though he'd be hanging on to my thumbs. I had a blast with him and miss him immensely! Now if we can just keep him in the pool. 3. We also got to go to the Eccles Dinosaur Museum in Ogden. Jack loves dinosaurs and showed us his "excited face" in the video. Love that kid!

Pioneer Day!

Yesterday, Mom, Molly, Buffy Jack and I went up to This Is The Place state park for a pre-Pioneer Day celebration. Jack took a while to warm up to the animals, in fact the peacocks terrified him, but we were able to get him on the horse ride. I guess I can't really blame him when I got gored by the cow that I was petting because I stopped to talk to mom. Next thing I know I was feeling a horn in my side. It wasn't very hard but it did startle me.




The highlight of the day, or should I say highlights, were the multiple train rides we went on. Jack was in heaven! There is a miniature train that we rode that Jack called the "pokey train." See attached video. He was such a trooper and walked all over.His favorite was riding in the yellow caboose! Look at his grin! We also went to a puppet show and Jack decided that he wanted to be a part of the show and before we knew it he was back behind the curtain with puppets. The girl doing the show was great and let him play with the puppet, which was as tall as he was!

At the entrance of the park is a brand new statue that was just unveiled last week of Brigham Young and Joseph Smith together. I really like it. You can almost feel the love and respect that they had for each other in the statue.

I'm grateful for my pioneer heritage and it's amazing to think that I had relatives in the Martin handcart company and other later companies. They went through and survived a lot...more than I ever could! I've realized that I really need to learn more about them and hope to. I'm also grateful for the faithful examples of my grandparents and parents! They're amazing and such a strength to me!




We had a great time at the park and we wore Jack and Buffy out! It didn't take long for them to doze off in the car. A day well spent and fun memories!

Oh what do you do in the summertime.....

Play with family of course! I love being with my nephews and nieces and don't stop laughing by the cute things they do and the fun things that they say. I just wish they all were closer so that I could spend more time with them!

We had a lot of fun listening to Andrew perform his various animal voices and we all had fun swimming at my pool!

Jack had fun on the 4th jumping on the Rampton's trampoline and sword fighting with Andrew and Greg.