the big TWO OHH!

i finally said goodbye to the teenage years.. i'm all grown up now! my birthday is on May 11th and it was such a great day... it's always special because my grandma Verene and i were born on the same day! although i wish i could be able to celebrate with her on our day.. i still spent some time thinking about her! such a wonderful lady and i miss her so much! 

i had to go to work and class that day which was a bummer haha but then i got done with lab early so i headed home! i'm very traditional and my mom and dad know that so they asked what i wanted to do on my birthday and asked if i wanted them to come up to rexburg... ohhhh nooooo... i wanted to come home go out to dinner come back and open presents and eat cake.. so we did just that. i was home a little early though and my mom was not too happy haha jk but she thought i was coming home later and the decor wasn't up yet... ha she's too great.. i still get the streamers and everything and i still love it! but my dad got home and they took me out to texas.. it was delicious! we came home and opened presents and boy was i surprised.. i always ask my mom if i have any surprises for my birthday and i never do anymore but this year i had two big surprises! i got some clothes and shoes that i picked out myself and then.... my mom bought me all knew plates and utensils which was very awesome because i just got all the hand me down stuff before AND THEN my parents got me a new flat screen TV!! oh man i was so excited and it's totally amazing! i love it and it was such a great surprise! thanks for such a wonderful birthday parents! you always out do yourselves! you two are the greatest! 

they always get me a gorgeous bouquet of roses! 

 all the great presents!

 i told my mom to not bother with cake or ice cream this year because i can't eat it but she said that it was my birthday so we were going to have something so she went and got cupcakes! she's so thoughtful!

 better than anything cupcake... my favorite! and look how cute the party gear!

Thanks again for such a wonderful birthday parents! you guys are the greatest!!

a little bit of inventing

with the diet i am on i don't have much of a variety of what to eat... so i get bored fast! so one day i was walking home from my classes thinking about all the wonderful things i could eat for lunch.... salad... no... ham sandwich with nothing on it.... BORING.... cereal... blah.... chicken... too much work... grilled cheese sandwich.... :D. my dear friend andrea would be proud of me because that is basically all she loves to eat but this was not your ordinary grilled cheese. I used two slices of low carb bread and the only cheese i had was my lowfat string cheese... sooo i cut it up into thin little pieces. sprayed some butter on there and used a frying pan to cook it. boy was it delicious. i was really proud of myself with this new thing i could eat even though my roommates thought i was so strange... haha but they don't understand. i guess i'm still going to have to get more creative as the days go on. if you have any suggestions for low carb low fat meals i'd love to know.. always trying to find new things. 

probably does not look all that great to most but it's making me drool right now... yum yum yum!

mother was proud!

to my mother

i didn't post something about my mom on mother's day partly because i forgot and haven't been up to date on the blog and partly because i got to spend mother's day with her and tell her how much i love her and appreciate her on that day! but i decided to post something anyway because she's just to great not to! she does so much for me and works so hard! she's the greatest example and i couldn't ask for a better mom! so hope you had a wonderful mother's day spent with ME... and dad! Thanks for all you do! you are the best mother dear! 

medical assisting

a lot of things have been happening in my medical assisting class lately... some pretty fun stuff (sorta). we got our stethoscope and our pressure cuffs. we learned how to take blood pressure and other vitals. we have to take 50 peoples vitals by the end of the semester. it's pretty crazy to see how everyone varies. also we've started on injections. our teacher told us to bring oranges to our lab last week so we did and we practiced a couple of times on our oranges. we learned how to prepare our syringe and make sure it stays sterile.... then she said "alright everybody wash up, we are going to practice on each other." we were all like uhhhh... alright. ha so we started with subcutaneous injections. those are in the side of the arm where the fat is (relief society arm.. in that area). they are really thin needles and they don't hurt hardly at all. we give each other normal saline which is the same acidity as our body fluids. i got two shots in the arm that day...

today we started on injections in the deltoid and the vastus lateralis. the deltoid is closer up to the shoulder where a lot of shots are normally given. we use normal saline again and the same type of needle. it was a little harder to put the saline in because we put it directly into the muscle this time. it doesn't hurt too bad but i got two shots in each arm today. the vastus lateralis is a different story... that shot goes into the thigh on the outer side of the leg. the needle is larger and longer. i got two shots in each leg and it hurts a lot worse.. not unbearable but not something you want to have done all the time. one girl that i gave it to got a spasm in her leg.. it was pretty weird. my teacher is really good at preparing us to be sterile and accurate. it's pretty crazy learning how to give injections.. i was really nervous at first but it's becoming a lot easier now and less nerve racking. the only problem is we have to practice on each other which is only fair. i love my classes and i'm so glad they are going good! next lab we get to do injections in the butt.. should be amazing!

health update: i went to a dietician to help me make sure i am eating properly for insulin resistance. i have been doing really good with it.. hardly any sweets (except on my birthday (pics coming later) which was a cupcake and it was soooo delicious) and i cut out a lot of my fat which was causing me not to lose weight. i count my carbs, fats and calories every day. it hasn't been too bad because i have a app on my phone that adds my foods up for me... very helpful. i can't really tell a change in my tiredness because i have to get up for work at 6:40 every morning and i go to bed too late (college student) but i have felt less fatigued. i still get nauseous and light headed so those are my bad days but other then that things have been going pretty good.. lost 6 lbs so far which i'm really excited about.. it's been about 3 weeks. just gotta keep working at it!

a little bit of Rexburg...

the day before courtney took off back home, she and i and our other roommate breanne went and hiked R mountain. It's about 15 min west of rexburg and it's just a little butte but everyone calls it R mountain. also because it has a big R on it. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the top and we hiked around at the top then headed back down. later that night a group of us took off to green canyon to go soak in the hot springs. It's a little swimming place they have about 30 minutes headed toward Jackson. It was quite the day and a good last night with our roommate. (don't mind all my whiteness.. it's still been winter here:)

we're pretty much amazing!

 courtney and me

 the view from the top... looking toward rexburg

Virginia, Richmond Mission

My roommate Courtney just got called to the Virginia, Richmond mission and she leaves the beginning of June. she just took off back home to Montana last week to get ready for everything. we were all so sad to see her leave but we are really happy for her and know she will do an awesome job there. Here are some posts of her birthday dinner back in April. Good luck Courtney. We miss you already!

my roommates courtney and breanne and courtney's friend

my other roommates nichole and janee and me