August 2017 - Yard Sale, Tuacahn, San Diego, and A New Baby!
This has been a very eventful and wonderful month! It started out in a perfect way, kayaking on Pine View Reservoir to watch the sunrise. My co-worker, Amber, invited me to enjoy this experience with her. She does it many times each summer it and I was grateful that she asked me to join her. We met at the lake at 6:00 am, carried the kayaks down to the water and then just paddled and relaxed for about an hour. It was INCREDIBLE! So relaxing and so very beautiful. I look forward to the chance to go again.
That evening we spent getting ready for our "garage" sale. Actually we have a huge storage unit that we want to quit using so we decided to have a big sale to empty it out. Some of the stuff in the shed had been stored for over 30 years! It was a lot of hard work, but so nice to purge the things that we have no use for anymore.
Saturday was the big day of the Sale. My sisters and Shandra were awesome workers and we were able to get everything ready before the first customer came. I feel like it was a great success.
After the sale was over we loaded up anything that was left and took 3 loads to the DI. Honestly it was very hard to let go of somethings, but it also feels so good!
This summer semester had been a great semester. I absolutely loved both of my classes. I taught Maternal/Newborn/Pediatrics on both the Layton and Murray campuses. I felt much more relaxed teaching this semester since I already had taught the class before and it just seemed as though it went well all semester. The students were fantastic! In fact the Murray class made a special effort to celebrate my birthday in June. And, they gave me a couple of the cutest plants with super nice cards. Luckily Carrie and Lori at the Murray campus have volunteered to water and tend to the plants so they won't die.
Here is a picture of the Murray class.
All of my students passed my class which makes me REALLY happy! I wasn't able to be there for their finals because I was headed to Tuacahn.
Tuacahn, what can I say? It was just as fantastic as last year. Mickel drove her brand-new Toyota Rav4 and Jody, Kristiann and I just enjoyed the trip to St. George. Our condo was perfect just as expected. The performances this year were:
All three of them were absolutely AMAZING! So much talent! I just sat there mesmerized throughout every show.
I think that if I could have any wish granted it would be to be able to have the means available to be able to travel around the country and see all of the great theater productions, especially the musicals. I absolutely LOVE musicals. I listen to them all of the time and find it hard to not sing along when I am watching. I believe the world should be a musical, where we all stop what we are doing to punctuate our statements in song and dance. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
While in St. George I was able to catch up with Cheryl (Toby) and Kim - my roommates from my freshman year at Dixie. We had a fabulous time visiting! It was so good to see them.
Every day I had been praying that I would have some kind of prompting to know when the best time would be to travel to San Diego for the arrival of Tasha and Zane's new baby. The 2nd day we were in St. George Tasha called and said that her doctor had just told her that her blood pressure was elevated and that she was already dilated to 3-4 and 80% effaced. I had the strong feeling that it was soon time to head to San Diego. So, I talked to Kim and made arrangements for him to drive down to St. George the next day after Shandra's graduation.
Yes, I missed Shandra's graduation. I feel really bad about that. She finished school in May, and then got her dream job working at Primary Children's hospital, but her actual graduation was while I was in St. George. I am so very proud of her! She worked very, very hard to accomplish this goal of becoming a surgical tech, and she loves her job. I am so glad that Kalel and Kim were able to join her for the celebration of her success.
Kim took off right from the graduation ceremony for the long drive to St. George. It's a good thing that he is used to being up all night! He arrived about 2 in the morning and slept for a few hours before the even longer drive to San Diego. (Have I ever mentioned how much I hate driving places? Well I do, and this trip was no exception.) It was a long, long drive. Kim slept a good portion of the drive and I survived by listening to a book. We had about two hours left when I stated that we had to make a potty stop. We drove all around the next town looking for a gas station with a rest room, but to our dismay, we couldn't find one! Crazy! We even stopped and asked for directions and were told to go to the nearby 7-11. There was a restroom there, but it was outside and we had to pay to use it! We just decided to get back on the freeway and luckily found a restroom in the next town. Crazy!
Finally we arrived in San Diego! Hurrah! Oh, it was so good to see Tasha and Zane! I have missed them more than I thought possible! Since we didn't know exactly when the baby was going to show himself, we just decided to relax, enjoy our time, and maybe help with some projects in their house.
Here are some cute pics of Tasha's cute pregnant belly.
A week after we arrived Tasha had a doctor's appointment. The doctor told her that her blood pressure was still elevated and she was further dilated. She, the doc, decided to send Tasha to the hospital for some monitoring and if everything was looking good she would schedule an induction on the day she was 39 weeks (4 days away).
Fortunately all of the tests in the hospital were good, although the numbers were creeping higher. The doctor told her that she didn't want to take a chance on Tasha developing severe preeclampsia so she scheduled an induction for Sunday, August 27.
August 27 just happens to be Kim's mother's birthday and when Tasha called her, Joan was ecstatic to be sharing her birthday with another grandchild. Kristiann's birthday is also on that day. Shandra's birthday falls on August 28th and she was a little disappointed that Tasha couldn't wait until that day for the induction.
Tasha invited both her dad and I to be in the room with her when she delivered, so bright and early Sunday morning we headed to the hospital. Tasha was craving McDonalds, so we stopped and picked up breakfast on the way. When we got there she was already dilated to a 5 so we knew that it wouldn't be too long of a labor. She got hooked up and we all settled in for the rest of the morning. Even with the Pitocin she wasn't in terrible pain, so she chose not to get an epidural for awhile.
At about 11:00 she was told that the anesthesiologist had to go into a complicated case, so she needed to get her epidural at that time or wait for 3 hours. She opted to get it then, and was quite comfortable for the rest of her entire labor.
Final it was time! After pushing for only 20 minutes a very cute, perfect little boy with piles of long black hair presented himself to the world.
No matter how many births I see I am still overcome at each one, each and every one is a miracle, a beautiful gift from God. Watching the birth of my grandson was even more special, and I fell in love at first sight. I wasn't the only one, Tasha expressed later that she was in awe at the fact that the minute he was placed in her arms she loved him more than life itself. Zane was so overcome with emotion that he almost didn't cut the cord! I had to push him to do it! Grandpa Bob also felt overwhelming emotion. It truly was a very special event and I'm so very glad that Bob and I could be there.
Oh my goodness, I can't believe how much I love this little guy! He completely stole our hearts.
While Tasha was in labor and giving birth, her sister, Shandra, was in the hospital experiencing a different kind of pain - the kind that doesn't produce a cute little baby. Shandra got a kidney stone and spent the day in the ER fighting excruciating pain that strong medication could only dull. Not fun at all!
The next day was her birthday and she spent it laying around feeling miserable. Thank goodness for an adorable boy who took good care of her!
Kim and I only had 6 days to spend with Ish before we flew home, so we spent every minute holding, rocking, and photographing him. And, of course, Tasha and I created a Shutterfly book of his first week! Perhaps some may think that a 40 page book of his first week is a little excessive, but to us it is perfect!
What a wonderful month August has been! In addition to being with Tasha, Zane, and Ish, it was so great to spend so much time with Kim. With our work schedules we hardly ever see each other and having over two weeks together was awesome. I have cherished every minute!
That evening we spent getting ready for our "garage" sale. Actually we have a huge storage unit that we want to quit using so we decided to have a big sale to empty it out. Some of the stuff in the shed had been stored for over 30 years! It was a lot of hard work, but so nice to purge the things that we have no use for anymore.
Saturday was the big day of the Sale. My sisters and Shandra were awesome workers and we were able to get everything ready before the first customer came. I feel like it was a great success.
After the sale was over we loaded up anything that was left and took 3 loads to the DI. Honestly it was very hard to let go of somethings, but it also feels so good!
This summer semester had been a great semester. I absolutely loved both of my classes. I taught Maternal/Newborn/Pediatrics on both the Layton and Murray campuses. I felt much more relaxed teaching this semester since I already had taught the class before and it just seemed as though it went well all semester. The students were fantastic! In fact the Murray class made a special effort to celebrate my birthday in June. And, they gave me a couple of the cutest plants with super nice cards. Luckily Carrie and Lori at the Murray campus have volunteered to water and tend to the plants so they won't die.
Here is a picture of the Murray class.
 |
| Back Row: Brenda, Laura, Andrea, Rachel, Kim, Tausha Front Row: Rachel, Kylie, Jennifer, BrandyLee |
All of my students passed my class which makes me REALLY happy! I wasn't able to be there for their finals because I was headed to Tuacahn.
Tuacahn, what can I say? It was just as fantastic as last year. Mickel drove her brand-new Toyota Rav4 and Jody, Kristiann and I just enjoyed the trip to St. George. Our condo was perfect just as expected. The performances this year were:
All three of them were absolutely AMAZING! So much talent! I just sat there mesmerized throughout every show.
 |
| Jody and I |
 |
| Me, Kristiann, and Mickel |
While in St. George I was able to catch up with Cheryl (Toby) and Kim - my roommates from my freshman year at Dixie. We had a fabulous time visiting! It was so good to see them.
 |
| Toby, Kim, and I |
Every day I had been praying that I would have some kind of prompting to know when the best time would be to travel to San Diego for the arrival of Tasha and Zane's new baby. The 2nd day we were in St. George Tasha called and said that her doctor had just told her that her blood pressure was elevated and that she was already dilated to 3-4 and 80% effaced. I had the strong feeling that it was soon time to head to San Diego. So, I talked to Kim and made arrangements for him to drive down to St. George the next day after Shandra's graduation.
Yes, I missed Shandra's graduation. I feel really bad about that. She finished school in May, and then got her dream job working at Primary Children's hospital, but her actual graduation was while I was in St. George. I am so very proud of her! She worked very, very hard to accomplish this goal of becoming a surgical tech, and she loves her job. I am so glad that Kalel and Kim were able to join her for the celebration of her success.
 |
| I'm so proud of this girl! |
Kim took off right from the graduation ceremony for the long drive to St. George. It's a good thing that he is used to being up all night! He arrived about 2 in the morning and slept for a few hours before the even longer drive to San Diego. (Have I ever mentioned how much I hate driving places? Well I do, and this trip was no exception.) It was a long, long drive. Kim slept a good portion of the drive and I survived by listening to a book. We had about two hours left when I stated that we had to make a potty stop. We drove all around the next town looking for a gas station with a rest room, but to our dismay, we couldn't find one! Crazy! We even stopped and asked for directions and were told to go to the nearby 7-11. There was a restroom there, but it was outside and we had to pay to use it! We just decided to get back on the freeway and luckily found a restroom in the next town. Crazy!
Finally we arrived in San Diego! Hurrah! Oh, it was so good to see Tasha and Zane! I have missed them more than I thought possible! Since we didn't know exactly when the baby was going to show himself, we just decided to relax, enjoy our time, and maybe help with some projects in their house.
 |
| Kim and Zane added this shelving unit. Somehow they were able to almost match the stain of the cabinets perfectly! |
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| The guys working on building a table from the original redwood reclaimed in the remodel |
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| Recovering and staining the beams |
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| Tasha and I assembling the baby's new dresser/changing table |
A week after we arrived Tasha had a doctor's appointment. The doctor told her that her blood pressure was still elevated and she was further dilated. She, the doc, decided to send Tasha to the hospital for some monitoring and if everything was looking good she would schedule an induction on the day she was 39 weeks (4 days away).
 |
| Tasha's happy face when she was told there was a definite end date to her pregnancy! |
Fortunately all of the tests in the hospital were good, although the numbers were creeping higher. The doctor told her that she didn't want to take a chance on Tasha developing severe preeclampsia so she scheduled an induction for Sunday, August 27.
August 27 just happens to be Kim's mother's birthday and when Tasha called her, Joan was ecstatic to be sharing her birthday with another grandchild. Kristiann's birthday is also on that day. Shandra's birthday falls on August 28th and she was a little disappointed that Tasha couldn't wait until that day for the induction.
Tasha invited both her dad and I to be in the room with her when she delivered, so bright and early Sunday morning we headed to the hospital. Tasha was craving McDonalds, so we stopped and picked up breakfast on the way. When we got there she was already dilated to a 5 so we knew that it wouldn't be too long of a labor. She got hooked up and we all settled in for the rest of the morning. Even with the Pitocin she wasn't in terrible pain, so she chose not to get an epidural for awhile.
At about 11:00 she was told that the anesthesiologist had to go into a complicated case, so she needed to get her epidural at that time or wait for 3 hours. She opted to get it then, and was quite comfortable for the rest of her entire labor.
Final it was time! After pushing for only 20 minutes a very cute, perfect little boy with piles of long black hair presented himself to the world.
No matter how many births I see I am still overcome at each one, each and every one is a miracle, a beautiful gift from God. Watching the birth of my grandson was even more special, and I fell in love at first sight. I wasn't the only one, Tasha expressed later that she was in awe at the fact that the minute he was placed in her arms she loved him more than life itself. Zane was so overcome with emotion that he almost didn't cut the cord! I had to push him to do it! Grandpa Bob also felt overwhelming emotion. It truly was a very special event and I'm so very glad that Bob and I could be there.
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| A family is born! |
While Tasha was in labor and giving birth, her sister, Shandra, was in the hospital experiencing a different kind of pain - the kind that doesn't produce a cute little baby. Shandra got a kidney stone and spent the day in the ER fighting excruciating pain that strong medication could only dull. Not fun at all!
Kim and I only had 6 days to spend with Ish before we flew home, so we spent every minute holding, rocking, and photographing him. And, of course, Tasha and I created a Shutterfly book of his first week! Perhaps some may think that a 40 page book of his first week is a little excessive, but to us it is perfect!
Comments
That is awesome Shandra graduated with such a great degree! How amazing to work at the PCMC! She will be great!
I bet it's so rewarding to see your girls doing such great things! I'm sure BJ is looking down with proud eyes as well. Though, I bet it was hard for him to let little Ish leave! So sweet!