Family Ho Evening

When we were little, my sister called Family Home Evening "Family Ho Evening." It was funny. When we lived in Utah, we did Family Home Evening with our friends and watched Monday Night Football. Although, I was usually working a night shifts so I couldn't go very often. So FHE is pretty hard when it's just the two of us. But we have committed to doing FHE anyways. We do it by watching Monday Night Football and eating pizza and wings. This isn't the most healthy thing, but we are becoming Buffalonians. Fat Buffalonians. But none-the-less.

Our favorite place to eat is Duff's. They have the best wings ever. Our favorite pizza place is Nino's. It's better the second day because we make it crispier. It's a strange phenomenon. And I just love celery and bleu cheese. It's my new favorite.

So here is one of our favorite commercials. I love MC Hammer. I think that he is a good person. I liked watching him on the surreal life. He's cool.

So YAY for FHE!! And yay for being good mormons!

Happy Halloween

This year Halloween was pretty boring. Last year I got to carve pumpkins with my nephews. This year, no pumpkins at all. No nephews in costumes. No parties. And not a single trick-or-treater came to our door. Maybe they heard how mean we are...?

Or perhaps the problem was because we were gone between the prime time of 6:30 and 7:30. Or maybe it's because we don't have many children in our neighborhood. I don't know. But we have tons of leftover candy, which doesn't leave Spencer or I with many complaints. We get the good candy, like Reeses and Snickers.

We were invited to a party, but we were both working and couldn't make it.

This year, Spencer was a tired student/football intern. The kind that falls asleep standing up.



Or sitting down.



Or while having a conversation with his wife.



This year, I was a tired nurse. The kind that falls asleep standing, or sitting, or having a conversation. Even falls asleep at work once in a while...




I was especially tired this year because of benedryl. Yep. Benedryl.

So I wake up on Halloween with an allergic reaction. I'm super itchy and my lips are swollen. I have no idea what caused the allergic reaction. I contemplate calling in sick to work and decide not to. I can work while I itch, right?? And my airway wasn't swelling. Besides, if it got really bad, I was already at a hospital. What better place to be when you need to be intubated? So I go to work. And I'm going crazy itching. So I take benedryl. Well, you know what comes next. Oh man! Did I become groggy. The good thing is that my patients were not very sick, and there was extra staff because one of the people there was on orientation. Perfect! So my manager comes in to see how I am doing. They almost sent me home, but I didn't have a car or a ride. So she let me go into the empty room and take a nap in the recliner. Oh, I love the cardiac recliners. And I passed out! I have never fallen asleep that deep at work before. Even when I was working night shift. I woke up and then kept working in between my naps. I actually managed to take good care of my patients in spite of being half awake. Don't worry, I had my charge nurse helping me take care of them and making sure I did a good job. Have I mentioned how much I love my job and my manager and my co-workers? Here is just another reason. So that is why I was the tired nurse for Halloween.

Here are some cute pictures of the dogs playing in the leaves.

This is Mia howling. She loves to howl. It sounds a lot like singing.

Isn't she pretty?

I'm sure she is watching a squirrel or something.

Here is Brady rolling in the leaves.

So handsome.

Baby girl.

We recently taught Miss Mia how to roll. We are very proud of our little girl.

Here she is rolling in the leaves.

My cute little family.

I love when their tongues hang out. Even Spencer's. :)

Where We Live

We live in a quaint little suburb of Buffalo, New York. The town is called Orchard Park, where everything closes by nine. Living here is more like living in a forest. There is all kinds of forest creatures. Mia finds this fun because she likes to hunt animals. Brady enjoys this because he likes to pee on trees. And there is a lot of trees. Spencer sometimes doesn't like it because he has to dodge squirrels and deer frequently. My friend Nancy has a dog that wakes her up barking when the deer wander around near her house. Mostly I love it. Except when there are skunks around.

For a couple of weeks there was a large number of skunks dying. And you all know the smell that they leave behind. I wonder if that is their way of punishing those that kill them. Or perhaps it is a way of attempting to be immortal like Shakespeare and his poems. I don't know. But Spencer had a couple of theories about this phenomenon. He thought that perhaps the skunks were suicidal. They might be depressed because they smell and nobody likes them. Kind of like Pepe Le Pew. Another thought was that they were being live stink bombs like the Japanese kamikaze.

My favorite wildlife creature is the chipmunk. They are so freaking cute! When I was little, we used to go to my grandpa's cabin on Palasade's lake. My grandpa taught me how to attract the chipmunks and squirrels onto the porch with sunflower seeds. I spent hours sitting and waiting for these animals to appear on the porch to eat the seeds that I left. We even named them. I loved going to the cabin. One time one of the chipmunks got into the cabin! All of us girls freaked out and it took a while to get him back outside again.

When we were living in "the tower" at our apartment complex. There was a chipmunk that was always getting into the common room. I felt bad for the poor guy. We thought that maybe he was trying to hang out with the fake chipmunks and gnomes that inhabited the cheesy common room.

Here is the common room. Imagine it with the plastic gnomes and chipmunks and lily pads and frogs. Very cheesy.

I actually like garden gnomes. I think that they are cute. My grandparents had some that sat by their stairs in their sweet seventies shag carpet. I loved them! My sisters gave one to my mom for her garden. Gnomes rock! Especially David the Gnome. Do you remember that show! It was one of my favorites!

I especially loved how they kissed... I still do it...

So at the beginning of September, we moved from "the tower" to our nice roomy townhouse. This was a difficult process mostly because Spencer didn't have days off of work to do it. Therefore, I pretty much had to do it by myself. It took forever because I had to carry something all the way across the courtyard to the new house and then walk all the way back. Moving is a lot slower when just one person is doing it. So while I am moving stuff, the door to the house was left open so I could walk through the door when my arms were full. Guess who decides to go on in. Yep. Our friend Mr. Chipmunk. So I had to spend a couple of hours figuring out how to get the chipmunk out of the house. Not my idea of fun.

My own little Chipmunk Adventure. Do you remember that movie?! One of my all time favorites! Love the songs!! I like the chipettes the best and wanted them to win. Maybe because I am a girl. "We are the girls, we are the girls, we are the girls a rock-n-rollin'!"

This moving experience was actually pretty funny and definitely memorable. So after spending the whole day moving things by myself in the heat and humidity...Spencer would get home and want to move the bigger furniture with me. So we tried to do it and my muscles were jello. They were completely shot from the day's work. I felt really bad but I just couldn't do anything. So we had to put it off until the next day. Well, the next night we try again and guess what?? It's pouring rain. It is not that much fun to move a leather couch in the rain. It kept slipping out of my grip. And I couldn't see because I am vertically challenged, so I ran the edge into a tree, which made the couch run into my face. Yeah, it really hurt.

Then the next day we had to move the washer, dryer, and fridge down the stairs with just me and Spencer. Spencer was holding the dolly with the appliance on it and I was below trying to stabilize and praying that it wouldn't fall and squish me. I hope that you can see this image in your head of me below the huge appliance feeling pretty helpless should it fall. Thankfully, it didn't. We managed to get it done by ourselves. My husband is freakin' strong! Did I mention that we also had to haul these appliances across the apartment property and over speed bumps and up some stairs. Yep. My husband is superman.

So this is our cute little townhouse, number 13. And it has been very lucky for us.

Except that no one told us that we have to shower with the bathroom doors closed and the window open or else we will set off the fire alarm. It was really neat at 5:30 in the morning to set off the fire alarm and probably wake up all our neighbors.

Oh, and it was neat when all the tiles on the bathtub fell off randomly.

Other than that, we love it. Although we do miss the awesome seventies paneling on the place in the tower. But we are glad to have our own washer and dryer again.

This is where our dogs like to go pee.

This is one of the cool lights around the complex. It looks like the lamp-post from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I'm gonna take a picture of it in the snow...

This is the tree in our front yard, just outside our bedroom window. It's so pretty.

God is an artist...

We have had a beautiful autumn here in western New York. I love deciduous trees. I always have. I dreamed of living on the east coast when I was a little girl because they had so many deciduous trees. And now here I am...missing home. Being close to my family is totally worth living with pine trees.

The thing that I love about deciduous trees is that they are gorgeous in all the stages of their life. Seriously. They are beautiful in the spring when they have pussy willows and as they get those tiny baby leaves. They are pretty in the summer and provide shade and a jungle gym and forts (I was the QUEEN of forts as a child....I still am.) And in the fall they burst into color that even Crayola cannot hope to capture. They are even pretty in the winter with their elegant silhouette against the snow, full of hope and the promise of another warm season.

This fall has been particularly beautiful. We live next to a lake and a park full of trees, and I have dogs that I walk. So I have been enjoying the cool weather and exquisite scenery. I love the quiet, crisp air and the crunching of leaves underfoot. And there is nothing prettier than a tree that looks like it is on fire because the leaves are so red. So here are some pictures that I have taken around our house and also some thoughts.




God is definitely an artist. I mean, just look around. He has made some amazing pieces. And look at how other artists attempt to copy his works. It is unbelievable.



When I am at work, I am amazed at how the body works. The human body is truly a masterpiece. The body is a perfect example of using science as art.




God has played a huge role in our lives. I was at a job when we first moved here that was horrible. It ended up not working out and I was really upset about it. However, my other job ended up working out and I LOVE it. I seriously love my job. I love the people that I work with so dang much. They are smart, and helpful, and NICE! They are so nice and have welcomed me with open arms. We have so much fun at work. I had forgotten that work could be that way. I am so happy. I was cuddling with Spencer the other night and I just looked at him and told him that how happy I am. I am really content. How awesome is that?! God has really been looking out for us. When we were planning to move here I was really scared. And when we first got here I just wasn't sure and cried a lot. But it has worked out beautifully. It was meant to be.



Spencer's job and school have been working out really well, too. He has been busy, but has been enjoying it. He has had a lot of great opportunities and is doing well in school. I am really excited for him and for his future. I am so proud of him. The people at his work and school really like him. The Bills plan to keep him for next year and then after that...we will see where we are in life.




The dogs seem to be happy, too. I feel bad because they don't have a yard anymore. But I think in some ways, they like it better because we are forced to take them on walks. I also feel bad because we are so busy that we aren't with them during the day, but we play with them at night and they still have each other. They really do seem happy (especially now that Mia is no longer in heat). It is also nice that we have a lot of space in our house for them to romp around in.




Did I mention that I only work day shifts now?? I am so completely happy about that. I am so lucky because there are people that have been waiting for two years for a day shift position. I also work in two units that I adore. I am less tired and don't get nauseated from lack of sleep. I don't have to work with bitti's and I have work with friends! I love having a normal schedule. God has really helped me out.




I love where we live. It is away from the city and the ghetto. I feel safe and it is so pretty! Again, this was a huge blessing! Since we didn't come check it out before, we sure did luck out.




Mia got sick for a few days this past week. It was really hard because we have carpet and she kept making messes. It was not fun to clean up. I think that she is doing better now. We think that it might have been some type of worm that the ducks or geese carry in their poop. It also could have been c. diff. Either way, she is doing better. I'm glad that I have some medical knowledge to help her out. It was kind of cute because I had to give her the BRAT diet. I made her rice every day. It was kind of like having a sick child. Poor baby. I am so grateful that she is better and I am grateful to Spencer. He is the best! He is so good at helping me out. It is hard because I am gone everyday all day. He is the biggest sweetheart and helps with the dogs, even when it is gross. And he helps clean dishes and do laundry. I don't know what I would do without him. What a great guy!

I have two really great friends, Lindsay and Nancy. Nancy was my preceptor when I started working at my hospital. Lindsay is one of my co-workers. They both live close to me. Spencer and I have had to share a car since we moved here, which is quite difficult (needless to say). Nancy and Lindsay have been the sweetest people. They have let me get rides with them to and from work. I haven't been able to actually car-pool with them because I don't have a car to drive them to work. I feel like such a mooch. But they have been so nice about it. I am so thankful to God for sending them to me. They have also been a great support to me, especially when I was all alone while Spencer was at camp. They are awesome friends and have been so giving.

We also have had some neighbors in our apartment complex that have been good friends. Eric and Michelle who have two cute little boys. And Jeff who has two grown kids that are at college. They have us over to watch football and hockey. They have also been generous with their friendship.

I have also made friends at our church. I have a great visiting teaching companion, Maurie Elle. She is really nice and good about getting me to get my visiting teaching done. It's nice to have someone looking out for you.

So yeah. God has been very good to us. I know that he has always lead me to the places that I am supposed to be. I never really know why I am supposed to be where he sends me, but it has always worked out. My life is one of God's masterpieces. It is definitely a work in progress. But it's getting there. I want my family and friends to know that things are going well for us. We are super busy and don't blog very often, and we are sorry. But know that we are very happy and content. Our only complaint is that we need another car, which we hope to get in the next couple of weeks. We also miss you all very much and hope to see you soon.