Familglia Itri

At the end of May Todd's whole family came out to Utah to visit. It is always fun to see everyone together. We are pretty bad at taking lots of pictures, but managed to get a few. The trip has been planned for a while because Todd's youngest brother, Kyle, is going on a Mission soon. His birthday was yesterday, but we planned the trip before so that we could make sure we caught him before his MTC date. As it turns out, he now isn't leaving until September, but there was no way we could have known that. He is going to the Quito Ecuador mission.

We all had the opportunity to go through the temple with Kyle for his first time. What a blessing it is to see a family together for such an occasion. I love times like this that you can really see the hand of the Lord in blessing the lives of those who live according to his example and strive to be like Him, especially in keeping families close. Todd has one brother, Brian, who is down syndrome and not able to go through the temple with us. However, the officiator in our session was "Brian Geoffrey", which happens to be Brian's EXACT name. Such a tender mercy from the Lord.





The rest of the time we spent visiting extended family, eating lots of food, taking family pictures, and of course playing volleyball and softball on memorial day. The ladies even spent some time AWAY from all that testosterone, which was a nice little break.

The fancy feast for ladies only:


Brian in his new hat:


Grandma Johnson with Crystal:


Todd playing with Reagan:


This is Seth at Kyle's mission call opening a few weeks earlier:


Don't we have such cute nieces and nephews?


The whole family:

Look Unto Christ in Every Thought... Doubt Not, Fear Not!

This was the mantra of one of my favorite seminary teachers. One of the nice things about living in Utah was being able to take seminary during school instead of early in the morning, and having lots of great teachers. While I know there are a lot of great teachers that are called in other places to teach early morning seminary, it was nice to have teachers that were able to dedicate most of their time to teaching and planning their lessons. This particular teacher was very creative and effective in teaching, and I still remember some of the things we did in his class. One of them was the above phrase. Every single day at the end of class as we were all leaving, he would shout (depending on how loud we were as we were getting up to leave) "Look unto Christ in every thought!" and the class would respond with "Doubt not, fear not!" (reference Doctrine and Covenants 6:36). I also remember taking a challenge to do baptisms for the dead on a specific week, I went with my friend Kate Griffiths who was in the class with me.
Why do I bring up such a random, specific thing? I got a letter in the mail today. My own handwriting had written the address, and the return address was for "Bro. Mortensen." We called him Morty for short. Anyway, here is what was inside. There are a few errors, but hey, I was a kid! Try double clicking to make the images bigger:





"Youth Conference 2002"


"Me & My dance team in Cali!"


"In the car on the way to Cali"


"School picture 2002-2003"

Evil MOLD! oh, and Happy Mother's Day!

So this year for Mother's Day Todd and I decided to do something special for both my mom and for us (sounds selfish, I know). but how many people make some really nice improvements on a rental property, eh? Not that many. So on Monday morning we drove to Lowes to check out some laminate flooring. We picked out this really pretty oak laminate that has glueless installation, which of course was also the best price except for maybe the stick on kind. It was on sale. (For those of you who know my mom, you should know that she always likes her presents more if they were on sale). So we got home and Todd got right to ripping up the old, VERY ugly linoleum that has probably been in that kitchen for 60 years.

Well, at first all went well. The linoleum was only attached on the sides where it went up the wall a little bit, so the bottom was a cinch to pick off. But then we saw it. Mold. I didn't act too worried, but really inside I was freaking out a bit. I was worried that we would have to tell my mom so she could pay a professional to clean it up, then she would get mad since she just spent a bunch of money refinishing her hardwood floor and getting tile laid in the kitchen. I had work that night so I spent my extra time while patients slept looking up mold cleanup and when to call a specialist. We really wanted to get this done by Sunday.

Later in the evening I called Todd to tell him of my concerns and my research. Well, he let me go on for a bit, then told me I didn't have to worry about it. He had gone to the Home Depot and bought mold cleaner/remover, and had cleaned the whole floor already. I told him I was still a little mad because I was worried about his health being so close to it, only to be told he also wore a mask, gloves, and goggles. Wow. Sometimes the amazingness of my amazingly amazing husband just amazes me. :) I was shocked. Tuesday he went back over the whole floor with bleach just to make sure all was well. Then I did it again on Wednesday just for good measure.





Notice the linoleum that was there before- just so you know, it looks dirty in the picture, but that is how it looked right after mopping. Yuck!


So once we had all of that mess taken care of, we laid down the underlayment for the floor. It is anti-mold and keeps moisture from coming up from below. It was sometimes a bit frustrating to try to get all the wrinkles out of it, but I think we did a pretty good job.







Once we had all that down, it was time to start laying the laminate wood. The first piece we did was around a doorway, and took us about 2 hours to complete. That was a little discouraging, as we had hoped to lay down the whole floor in one day. Luckily the first piece that we cut really bad ended up being usable in another section of the floor that we had to cut the pieces lengthwise, so at least we had that goin' for us.



We suckered Nikenzie into helping us cut some wood when my parents left her to us to watch while they were at Lauren's ballroom concert. All she had to do was help the clamp keep the wood in place and hold a flashlight. As a 12 year old, she complained a lot while we attempted to break child labor laws, but didn't fail to take credit later during the big reveal.




Some of our fine handywork:







Things were plugging along really well, but went exponentially better when Anna and Will came to town. Will had helped place laminate flooring before, and having three people along the length of the room to "click" in each row made the goings much, much easier. The room came together quite well.







Nope, we are not smart enough to get pictures of my mom seeing the new floor for the first time. Sorry.

So at our awesome ward, the Elders quorum has some sort of reward for the guy who has the coolest moment of the week. It is sort of a trumped up version of a "good news moment." Todd said that he had been trying to win the reward, a trophy the man gets to take home for the week, since it was introduced a few months ago. He said he had to do some persuading, but ended up winning the award for laying the floor down for my mom.

Change

So on Sunday Todd was sustained as part of the new bishopric of our singles ward. We have been waiting long months to find out if we would be released with the new bishop or if we would get to stay our full year assignment. We are pretty much distraught that we don't get to stay longer. We absolutely love it. No offense to the married student ward, but I am not very excited to go back in October. It is just too much fun to be where we're at.

I thought a lot about how crazy life is and how things work out. Way back last April Todd and I found out we had to move out from our amazing apartment because it was being sold. I was really excited to look for a new place. Not long after we found out we had to move, we found out that the people living in the "little house" at my parent's were moving out sometime in the fall/winter. My parents sort of have 2 houses on their lot and they let people stay there in exchange for doing chores as "part of the family." Todd and I really felt we had to consider this as an option, and eventually felt very strongly that we needed to make the move. We ended up moving in mid-August.

The first month of church in our ward we missed 2/4 Sundays. We were called as Sunday school teachers, and I taught 1 class while Todd was out of town. The next week we were transferred down to the singles ward.

About a month after got there, a girl that I didn't even know yet heard I was looking for a job as a nurse. The next day she called me and gave me her managers phone number at UVRMC, and when I called him he said he was just about to call me. In my interview he told me he was going to offer me the job, and I had been very highly recommended (mind you, the only thing I had ever said to this girl was "yes, I am looking for a job as a nurse"). Now I am in the best starter job I could ever imagine and Miriam and I are great friends.

These are only a few of the things that we have noticed that have allowed us to have this opportunity and that have been blessings because of it. Todd was released and re-called under the new bishop, so he got to be set apart again. I love to hear him being blessed to be able to improve in his calling and at home. My favorite part of the blessing was when the stake president said that Todd would be a "good boy." What a simple yet wonderful blessing. He is, of course, already a good boy, but what a blessing to watch an unseen hand change our lives and ourselves so much.

For me, I am mostly in the background. But I just love to watch Todd interact with the ward members. They all love him. One time he looked at me from the stand during a talk in sacrament meeting, and mouthed to me "Wake up!" I was extremely offended (jokingly so), as I was not sleepig nor had I even been closing my eyes. He justified himself later by saying no one saw, but oh was he wrong. I had to assure a few people that I do NOT sleep during sacrament meeting.

I have read a few of the articles the stake has had bishoprics read and been able to see him integrate the counsel and goals of the stake presidency in teaching and example for the ward. I love to hear his testimony so often and see how willing he is to come to meetings at 7:00 a.m., stay for meetings all the way until church at 1:30, then offer to count tithing to allow the 1st counselor to go home, even when it is not Todd's turn. I think his only complaint is that he can rarely eat the food at munch and mingle because it is too unhealthy or the spagetti is overcooked or it is just something he doesn't eat like red meat. Other than that (I feel bad stuffing my face while he sits there hungry since he hasn't eaten ALL day), we would both be happy to stay in the ward as long as we live in Utah.

Writer's Block

So I have been trying to think of something cool to write about. I suppose my life is pretty boring. I don't really have anything to say, and no picture to speak of. I suppose I could chat about how Nikenzie and I finished Donkey Kong Country II on Tuesday, with a 102% completion rate. It was awesome. We just had time to turn on DKC III and Nikenzie just about cried at how "ugly" the new Kong character is. She basically begged me to never make her play him. I told her to bad! We will switch off to make it fair.

Todd finished up his finals today (as in Wednesday), but he still isn't feeling relief because we have to see what his final grades end up being. I'm sure he did great, he has worked really hard and had a really tough semester.

The peas in our garden have sprouted! I wish spring would stick around for more than a day at a time.

We FINALLY got internet working on our new computer in our house. We have been able to hook up our really old, really slow computer to the cable, but for some reason our new computer we bought last September never worked. My amazing (yet tardy) daddy came and gave us WIRELESS!!!!! We thought even when it worked we would have to plug it in, but we don't. I'm thrilled.

Pickles eat chocolate!

Random

Shelly in her gray hitler stach:

(p.s. my mom paid a whopping $0.25 for this, and wanted to return it when she found out it wasn't black or barbell. However, it is difficult to return items to a quarter machine)

I defrosted my mom's freezer:


For Spinal Interventions (my old and Todd's current workplace) Christmas Party (I know, WAY long ago), we went to the Jazz Game and got box seats. At the beginning of the game we went down, split into 2 groups, and hi-fived the players as they ran onto the court. Unfortunately, the boss, owner, and entire reason the rest of us were there got stuck hi-fiving the OTHER team, while Todd and I got lucky with the Jazz. See his disappointment:

Well, I suppose you can better see his disappointment in the attitude of his 3 daughters who got dragged to the wrong team with him

Photo shoot

So my good friend Lauren Billings is starting a new awesome hobby of picture taking. She even has a way nice camera and one of those huge fold up light reflector/light blocker circle thingies. To practice, she took pictures of her little sister and some of her friends, including Nikenzie. I went along to hold that big circle. I also got a few shots myself. Note that I am not the master poser, Lauren is the one who came up with all the locations and stances for the girls.

The pro stance:


West Side Story:


I like shoes? This one was mine....


Nikenzies new apology card cover:


Sacrificing for the shot:

Old Birthday

So, Nikenzie turned 12 this January. She had a late birthday party that Todd and I helped chaperone with my Dad. She went lazer tagging and before the session she and her friends were able to play glow-in-the-dark mini golf. Even though this was a few months ago, I really liked the pictures so I thought I would share a few. Although they are a bit dark, if you look at them you can see some of the neat stuff.

The Birthday girl:


Nikenzie and her classmates playing with a whale:



Megan running away from the shark:


I got away, but Nikenzie wasn't so lucky. Good thing she has such a good friend (Maranda) to try and save her:


Notice the frightening clown playing lazer tag with the kids:

Girls and Gardens

So basically the last 3 weeks have been catching up even more on life. I have had a pile of stuff in the living room that needed to be taken care of- and miraculously has gotten smaller faster than it has grown! Todd and I tried to get rid of one of the small annoying ones- I coupong to get new windshield wipers that we desparately need, but showed up 10 minutes after closing time. We'll have to try again next week. I have also kept up on the dishes and picking up junk pretty well too.

But the funnest was that Anna and Reese came and stayed with Mom and Dad for about a week. It was grand. And they would even come over in the mornings and play Donkey Kong with us. And by the way, I think Anna is better than both of us. That made it even better. And of course Reese had some turns as well (she would hold one controller, and whenever the other person died we would tell her it was her turn and she would trade us for the now useless one. She loved it.)









Todd and I started the garden today! We spend the morning in bed watching TV since I am at work tonight and we aren't able to do anything together. When we got up and were eating lunch at my parents', my dad asked if we would plant some peas and beans. And we were thrilled to do it! we went and got some seeds, raked the garden a bit (the soil there is already pretty good) and dropped in the peas and beans! Todd is really looking forward to beans in his salad and I want to crunch on those sugar snap peas. Once we harvest them we will plant a million tomatoes, including many cherry tomatoes. Then we will make a bunch of pasta sauce and bottle it, so my mom can stop buying the gross store kind and we can eat Todd's amazing kind all winter long, without as much work. Sounds great to me!

Progress

So after working the night shift for a bit, I started to get kind of lazy. Even if I hadn't worked for a few days I would still sleep in until 11:00 or later sometimes. I was having a hard time motivating myself to to much besides sleep, eat, and watch TV. So I have done two things to motivate myself.

#1: I have started making myself a "6 most important things to do" list. I learned about this in Mary Kay. Make a list of the 6 things you absolutely must get done in a day. Then make a list of other things you can do if you have time. I has really helped motivate me, and I have made a lot of progress in cleaning and organizing my house and my ever mounting stack(s) of paper!

#2: Playing Donkey Kong Country II. Yes, that's right. Playing Nintendo has made me a lot more productive. How? I knew you would ask. Well, I have this awesome little sister named Nikenzie. She is a morning person, and she also likes Nintendo. So on mornings that I didn't just get home from work, she comes over around 7:00 a.m. and we play Donkey Kong for about an hour before she goes to school. It gets me up and then I can start my day. I know, I'm genious!

Nurse Megan!!!

Wondering where I have been? I have been saving lives as a brand new nurse! I got a job at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center on the Medical, Renal, Progressive Care Unit (long names, I know). Our top three diagnoses that we take care of are renal failure, stroke, and drug overdose. However, as a medical floor we pretty much take anything. I work three times a week, 6pm to 6am. Many people have asked me how in the world I am able to work throught the night. Well, when I get home I try to sleep 8 hours as much as possible. And the day before I work I try to take a 2 hour nap. And I just have had to get used to it. It really isn't so bad only 3 days a week.

And the number one reason I am able to work at night is because I LOVE BEING A NURSE. I don't care what time of day it is, if I am nursing I am happy. Plus if my night is busy (which most are), I don't have time to be tired. Here are some patient quotes that might help you see why I like this so much:

"I'm so glad you got me instead of some other little old lady"
"{long, dramatic, depressed sigh}" (after telling the pt I wasn't coming back the next night)
"I'm not sure if I feel better because my meds are working, or if it is because you are being so nice"
"We can tell you got in to nursing for the right reasons"
"I know I need to call you if I need something" (as opposed to "I'm so sorry to bother you"
"I'm starting to feel happy"

How can you not like a job when you hear things like that every time you come to work? I even saw in the break room today my name showed up on the first thank-you card from a patient. What an honor. I just feel so lucky to be able to come here and make people's horrible experiences in the hospital a little less horrible. And more than that, I am lucky that I even like what I do. If anyone knows me, the last option on my list of careers was anything in healthcare, and I didn't even know what was included in a nurses job description until I was over halfway done with the program. How I ended up diving blindly into something that turned out to be so perfect for me I don't know. For those who don't know, a brief synopsis of my desicion:

After my first year of college I figured I was pretty close to getting an associated degree in something, so I visited a college counselor. He told me all I needed was a health class to get an AS in general studies. He looked at my transcript, scolded me for having no focus in my classes, and told me I should go into healthcare, specifically nursing because I had good grades. I was extremely offended by this, as I had fainted several times just looking at needles, and went queasy if anyone even said the word "blood." I came home and whined to my dad about this incompetent counselor. He asked me why it was so outlandish to consider such a career. I said "Dad, you know me! I couldn't handle it!" He calmly, simply said, "you would get used to it." I remembered a story he told me about when he passed out in medical school. So within the next minute, I decide I would apply for nursing school at UVU, as I had heard it was a good program.

I spent a year on my prereqs, got in my first try, and here I am. Nurse Megan. I am by no means highly competent in my clinical knowledge. That will come with time. I have to ask multiple questions every shift, and stumble on the phone when I talk to doctors (especially the mean ones). I still have to look up all my meds before I give them because I hardly recognize any of them, and don't even know what all the procedures are for. Doesn't matter. I look things up, I ask, and I will learn.

Gosh I love being a nurse.

Back to High School

I have to say, my life just keeps going backwards. First I revert to before I was married, and now I've reverted all the way back to High School!

My little sister, Lauren, is in Africa with my dad. She will be missing a few weeks of school. She went to school on Thursday, then she and my dad left for Kenya on Friday morning. She happens to have Chemistry with my old teacher, that I loved. She also had homework that needed to be turned in. So, I decided to do my little sister a favor. On Friday morning I got dressed out of Lauren's closet. I wore her shirt, her jeans, and her shoes. Then I parted my hair on the side she parts it on (we normally part it on different sides). Then I got her homework and her backpack. I went to work for a little while, then left in time to get to Lauren's school before chemistry started at 10:25. I met up with her friend Mayson in the hallway, and walked with her between classes. Lauren had drawn me a picture of where she sits in Chemistry, so I just went in, sat down, and pulled out Lauren's homework.

Class started, and it was just the same as it was 7 years ago. Different kids made announcements, then Mr. Shelton asked if anyone had a funny joke to share "I recall that 'laffy taffy' jokes are not acceptable". When he announced, however, that he was out of candy, no one volunteered. He then answered some questions about the homework. They had just learned to balance equations. Then it was time for the quiz. I folded Lauren's homework so I couldn't cheat (the class all was doing the same thing), and wrote "THIS QUIZ WAS NOT ACTUALLY TAKEN BY LAUREN FABER" at the top. Then I proceeded to balance the 4-5 equations. I turned in the quiz with the homework.

Then the lecture started. I just sat there for a minute, not sure what I should do. Then I decided that I better take notes. So I got out Lauren's notebook and a pencil. I noticed a boy in the front row looking back at me, and mouthing to the girl I was sitting next to "Is that really Lauren?" I gave him a funny look. A minute later he whispered "Lauren!" to which I looked up at him. He asked if I had cut my hair or something. I raised my eyebrows and shook my head. Then I went back to my notes.

The girl I sat next to was really nice. Her name was Aubrey. We chatted a little, and I told her where Lauren really was. I was just enjoying my time there, and wishing I could take Chemistry from Shelton again. We were talking about combustion reactions, and how they always produce carbon dioxide and water. Then Shelton called on me. "Faber. If combustion reactions are always occurring within our bodies, why do we need to drink water?" From the front row I heard a quiet "it really IS Lauren!!!!" from a bewildered classmate (that was my favorite part). So I answered "Because we need more?" And Shelton continued with the lecture "Because we need water for a LOT of things." Awesome, I got it right.

I did notice during the class that a lot of people were looking at me funny. Another kid from the back row also called out "Lauren" to see if I would look. Which I did, and I waved back at him. It was great.

After the lecture, everyone was doing their homework out of the textbook. Shelton was passing out some paper to go with their next lab. I raised my hand when he was by my row and asked if I could go to the bathroom. Shelton asked what happened to me, and I told him I got plastic surgery. Then I told him I really just wanted to say hi and turn in Lauren's homework for her. He asked if I remembered anything, and I said I was excited that I did. He then said "well, this is really easy stuff." Ah yes, the most cynical and demeaning teacher I ever had. Somehow he was also the most encouraging one. Somehow the subliminal message behind his coarse words really shines through. I then told him that he should probably not actually give Lauren points for the quiz and he said "Why not? She was here, I saw her take the quiz." Again, one of my favorite teachers. At that point I decided the game was over and I needed to go back to work. Pretty much everyone was staring and talking as I got up to leave. Everyone was wondering who the heck I was. I said goodbye, and "I'm off to Africa!" and left behind a confused group of kids.