DMV Adventure

This cartoon is exactly how i felt as i waited in line at the DMV. After my experience i truly felt like i'd been to the slaughter house!

So this month i turned 21 and it was sort of exciting. 21 means a lot of things but one that i was unfortunately forced to participate in was that i HAD to get a new drivers license. I can't tell you how much I have been dreading my trip to the DMV. They now require so much paperwork and information! For those who don't know you can no longer renew your license through the mail, just my luck! You now HAVE to go to the DMV and show them your social security card, drivers license and two pieces of mail that verify your address. I knew in order to avoid long lines and unplesant people i'd have to get up early and go. Everyday after my birthday i made a goal to get up early and go. Anyone that knows me probaby knows how well that went! For some reason i have this inability to get up early. The only way i can get up is if i have somewhere i need to be, somewhere urgent. I finally gave up on my goal to get there early and just got up when i felt like it. I went and to my surprise the wait was over TWO HOURS!!! I was not about to sit with a bunch of strangers waiting for something that just wasn't that urgent! So i turned around and left. I promised myself that after seeing that, i'd make sure and get their early the next time i try.

So about a week after that i tried REALLY hard to get up early but i just couldn't! When i finally got my lazy butt out of bed i showered and got ready. I knew that long lines or not i HAD to get my licensed renewed. I decided I wanted to beat the odds, i wanted my dmv picture to look amazing. I took my time getting ready, making sure my hair and make up looked perfect! Embarssing as it is to admit, i even practiced the kind of smile i wanted to be in my picture. This was the photo that would represent me on every legal record for the next FIVE years. I was not going to let myself look bad, not this time! Once i got to the dmv the sign on the door said it was about an hour wait. I figured i could wait an hour. Alsot the prospect of having to prep for another day at the dmv was not appealing to me. I got to the dmv took my number, filled out an application and took my seat. When i go there they were on number 630, my number was 663. I tried not to think about the long wait i had ahead of me so i pulled out my book and tried to read. At first i thought that maybe this wouldn't be so bad but typical of the dmv there was this SCREAMING baby! Usually i can handle a little crying from a baby but oh my goodness i have NEVER heard a baby scream that loud and for that long! I wanted to pull my hair out! Once the baby finally stopped crying i thought that maybe i'd finally be able to sit in peace. But no that was not in the cards for me. This lady and her mom decided to sit next to me and have the loudest conversation ever! I ignored them the best i could and waited and waited and waited for my number to be called. After about an hour i still had about 15 people a head of me. As time past i was beginning to get nervous. I was suppose to work at two and it was getting closer and closer to the moment when i'd have to give up and leave. About the time i was going to give my number to some lucky stranger, they called my number.

The whole process too a matter of seconds. In my excitement to finally get this over with, I completely forgot about the fact that i was going to try and actually look good in my picture. As soon as a sat down and faced the camera i froze. I forgot all the things i was going to do so i didn't look compeletly horrible. Before i could regain my composer the picture was already taken. In my picture i actually looked dumb founded, like i had no clue there was a camera taking a picture of me! My resulting picture was so bad it made rosie o'donnell look like the most beautiful woman in the world. Needless to say i will guard that picture with my life and as soon as i can i will DESTROY it! Ever since the experience I want to run and hide everytime i see a camera. I don't know why i put myself through this kind of stuff but i'm just glad i won't have to think about it for another five years.

I like this cartoon because my face literally looked like some of those people on the shirts!

FREEDOM....well almost

LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL!!! This last friday was the last day of classes and I can't tell you how amazing it feels to almost be done!! I only have four more tests and i've offically finished my second year of college! I know i'm prematurely excited about being done but i'm so close I can almost taste it. Each semester I get closer and closer to applying to my program. Even though everytime i think about applying for my program i have a mini heart attack i still am very excited to apply! Part of me can't wait to get started and then the other part of me doesn't want to grow up yet! I really don't feel old enough to be doing any of this right now!! It feels like i was a senior in high school just a few days ago. I can't believe i'm almost through with two years of college!! I guess it's like they say time flies when your having fun. I'm sure the next two years will fly by as well.

The Sweet Smell of Spring

I was on my way to class today and could smell just cut grass and it smelled so good to me! I love all the smells that spring bring! I especially love being able to hear the birds sing! It's been so nice to walk from class to class and not have to worry about being cold along the way! And i especially love that i don't have to scrape off frost from my windows! The weather has been great and i hope it stays like that for a while!!

ahhh....WARMTH!!

So this last week gave us some CRAZY weather!!! Both my roommate, Krista, and i were pretty sick of it! This week Krista's cousins were down in St. George at there grandparents condo and invited us down. We gladly accepted this invitation! It was SO nice to escape to some place warm. It made me realize that i should have started doing this ages ago!!!

Every year Krista's uncle invites some of his friends down and they go on a big horse ride through Zions. After their horse ride on Friday they took us all to a huge buffet down in mesquite. I'm not a big fan of buffets but it wasn't bad and they paid so it was a free meal. Something every college student can appreciate! The cowboys were going down for the seafood buffet but since i'm not a seafood fan I mostly just ate salad and these AMAZING gralic red mashed potatos! I did tried lamb for the first time in my life! Definately not one of my favorite things! I almost tried oysters, they were on my plate and everything! But when it came to actually trying it i just couldn't get myself to put it in my mouth they looked way to gross! I did LOVE the soft serve ice cream!! Probably the best part of the whole entire meal.

Saturday we woke up and went on i bike ride. I now have a new respect for all those that go on long bike rides!! It about killed me!! It was still way fun to go onthough! The trail was really amazing it took us up to the Tuacahn. Before i recommend this trial i do have to warn you that the trail has a ton of killer hills so don't expect it to be way easy. The way to the Tuacahn took like 45 min and about killed me! The way back only took like maybe 20 min and it was fun because we were just cruising down the hills. Krista's aunt had a road bike and we all had mountain bikes so we had a hell of a time trying to keep up to her but i think we did pretty good! In case you're wondering krista's aunt had a little speedometer thing and she said it was about 13 miles all together but that is counting from their condo so i'm sure it's like 2 or 3 miles shorter than that. Also we didn't go all the way up to the tucahn we just went to the sign. From what i hear the rest of the way to the tuchan is straight up hill just a little fyi in case you wanted to try it out. The trail is great for bike riding, running, walking, rollarblading, etc!! It even has a little pond thing for fishing! If you're ever down in st. george and want to try it out give me a call and i can try to explain to you where it is at! I can't guarentee i'll be able to get you there but i'll will sure try! When we got back from the ride we went and got some lunch and then laid out in the sun for about an hour. I can't even explain to you how good that felt!! It was so incredible! We left saturday night so we could be back to go to church but we sure didn't want to leave. No worries though we're going back again this weekend!

This sunday was pretty good church was good as usual but what was special was that Susan W. Tanner and her husband came and spoke to us about friendship, courtship and physical relationships. There talk was amazing. They emphasized the importance of having a friendship has a foundation and how the physical part of a relationship, while important, is not the most improtant part. It was all really really good I'm very glad i went! They focused a lot on friendship and how important friendships are. It really made me think about the importance if being social and making friends with every one. As most that read this know i'm not a very social person. I usually keep to myself and don't necesarily go out of my way to meet people. This talk really made me want to be better at that. Overall the talk really made me want to be a better person.

Reading

I LOVE LOVE LOVE reading!!! When i get a house of my own i very much would like to have a little room dedicated to reading. I'd have a nice comfy chair next to a warm fire place and then bookshelves filled with hundreds of books, so pretty much i want a library. Reading never fails to put me in a better mood. I think what i love so much about reading is that i feel like i'm living vicariously through the characters in the book. It's almost like i get to experience there love, heartache and adventure. Another reason is it gives me time to get my mind of my worries and focus on something else, it takes me to another world. I get so absorbed and enthralled in my books I've found my self worrying about the characters a little to much or even wanting to pray for them!! ha ha it's kind of sad how involved i get in my books. The down fall to my love of reading is that once i start a book i do nothing but read that book! I don't sleep, i don't study, i just sit and read until i'm finished, my family and roommates can probably attest to that! It's almost like an addcition because once i start i can't stop. I just finished a book called Tribunal, it's a sequel to Traitor written by Sandra Grey. I think what i love so much about these books is the intergration of LDS standards. The author writes about these LDS members and there struggles through both WWII and the cold war. Intertwined is little life lessons i think we all need to learn. Most of all is to have faith in God no matter what. I must put a warning label on the books i read because i love pretty much any book i read so i wouldn't rely to much on my recommendations. Next on my list to read is Masterpiece and The Secret Life of Bees. If you have any suggestions of other books let me know because i'm always looking for a good book to read!

Gum Graft

So a couple of years ago i got my dental implants and i thought after that the worst was over, at least for my teeth. But i've been getting a lot of infections where one of my implants is lately, so I went to my periodontist and he suggested I get a gum graft. For those of you who don't know what that is i'll explain. I'll go in and the doctor will put me to sleep (thank goodness!) then he'll separate part of my existing gum tissue in order to make a pocket for the graft. Once they've made the pocket they'll go to the roof of my mouth and cut a small piece of gum tissue out and place it in the pocket then suture the graft and existing gum tissue together. I'll be getting the gum graft in two places. One is on my lower front tooth and the other is my lower back tooth on my left side. When my periodontist told me i had to get the procedure done i wasn't too worried about it except for the whole costing an arm and a leg thing. I'd already had my implant surgery and i didn't feel much pain from that so i figured this should be super easy. Well my mom talked to the nurse and the nurse told her that I couldn't be very active and i couldn't be bumped at all in order for my grafts to take. She also said i'd pretty much be on an all liquid diet. I sort of felt like the nurse was exaggerating a bit because after my implant surgery i was up and ready to go the very next day. So i decided i'd google gum grafts and see what other people experienced. Almost every story i read the person said it was the most painful thing they had ever experienced. This really started to worry me. I read about two or three that said their faces got all swollen and bruised. That started to really worry me because i really don't want a swollen face! Some thing i am grateful for is that i'm getting totally put out! A lot of the experiences i read about said they just got local anesthia and were awake for the whole thing! I'm pretty sure i couldn't do that. As i continued to read i found out that they have the procedure posted on youtube. So being as curious as i was i went to you tube and watched a ton of them. They are pretty graphic but below are the links to them if you want to see what i'll be going through in about two weeks. None of you probably care about this but i really thought it was pretty interesting. I guess i'm one of those people that like to know what is going to be done to me before i go and get it done. Here are a few before and after pictures to give an idea of how much better it's suppose to look.

Found this picture online my tooth isn't that bad.

Here is sort of a sequence of what takes place:

Here are the links for the videos (hope they work)

http://www.periodontics-dentist.com/vdir_gumsurgery_v

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38i-xmwwQxA

Watches

I LOVE LOVE LOVE these watches!! They are a little pricey but i think they are worth it!
The top one i would probably use on more of a daily basis at work. The other two would really just be more for when i dress up.