Africa

So as I was doing my usual internet skimming this morning, you know, Pinterest, Facebook, gmail, blogger, and I read something on Pinterest that made me remember/think about how fortunate I was to go volunteer in Africa. It just started a chain of thoughts about what a miracle it was that I even got a spot to go, and how everything just fell into place piece by piece. The whole thing was a huge testimony to me of the power of prayer and having faith that everything will work out. When I decided I wanted to go, I prayed about whether it was right or not. The answer I got was the strongest that I had ever felt, so I knew I needed to go. So I called my friend McCall and told her I wanted to go with her and her mom. The next day she called me and told me that her and I wouldn't be able to go because all the spots had filled the day before. I was devastated! How could this happen? I KNEW I was supposed to go, so what was I going to do now? I couldn't go any earlier because of school, and I couldn't go any later in the summer either. This was the only team I was able to go with, but now it was full. What the flip? So I said a little prayer and felt calm about things, so I let it be. A few days later McCall called me back and told me that a family that had signed up for the June team had just moved to the July team, so we were able to go if I still wanted to. Heck yes! I was so excited. Let the fundraising begin! So I sent out letters and let everyone know what I was doing. The girl I worked with had done something similar in Bulgaria, and she said she got one thousand dollars from Wal Mart, since her brother-in-law was over donations. Her nieces where actually coming into the office the day after we had talked about it, so she said I could talk to him about it when he brought them in. So when he got there she explained what I was doing, and he said I would probably be able to get the money. He just needed to run it by his boss, then it was a done deal. Woohoo! That was a HUGE chunk of what I had to raise. What a relief! But....the next day he called Anne while we were at work and told her I needed to get my paperwork into him that day. He said they had just had a meeting and told everyone that if the donation wasn't going to a local cause it was an absolute no. No if, ands, or buts. He said he would try to get me the money, but it wasn't looking very hopeful, and I needed to start looking for other ways to raise it. When Anne was telling me this she looked like she was about to cry, but I felt totally calm about it. I knew that the Lord wanted me to do this, so I had faith that he would help me get there. Anne was so confused about why I wasn't freaking out, but I told her that it would all be ok. She thought I was nuts ha ha. So a few weeks went by and I heard nothing. Then one day I went into work and Anne threw a handful of ripped paper over me and screamed "You got the money!!!" We were both so ecstatic! After work we went over to her brother-in-law's house and he handed me the check. He said "I have no idea how you got this money. I pushed this every day for two weeks, and they shut me down every day, so I gave up. Then today my boss walks up, hands me this check and says give this to her, then walked away. I really can't believe you got this." I just smiled and thanked him and we left. What a miracle! Then through all my wonderful aunts and uncles, friends, and so many other generous people I was able to raise the money I needed to. The opportunity I had to go to Africa was such a blessing and literally a miracle. I'm so so grateful I got to go and learn everything and experience a completely different world. Thank you again to everyone that helped me get there!!!

Krishna Temple

Yesterday I had the chance to walk around the Sri Sri Radha Krishna Temple with one of the men who helps run it. Most people know it as the place where the Festival of Colors is held everywhere in Spanish Fork. I've been to the Festival of Colors before, so I knew the outside was pretty amazing, but I had never seen inside of it. So yesterday Whitney, one of my classmates, had to drive her patient home after clinic because he didn't have a ride. She obviously didn't want to go alone, so I volunteered to go with her. Her patient was Indian and lived in the Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork. When we got there he offered to show us around. It was so interesting to see how different everything was. The smells, the floors, the design, all of it pretty much. I kind of felt like I was actually in India. It was pretty cool. But he took us to the upper level where their temple was, and we had to take off our shoes before we went in. When we got there he rang this big bell to let Krishna (their God) know we were there. Then we went around the room as he told us about the pictures on the wall and the different Guru's that have come and gone and how they have been reincarnated. It was so interesting to me! It got me thinking about religion in general, not just my religion. It was interesting to listen to his stories of how Krishna saved the people from a flood by holding up 21 square miles of land with his pinkie for seven days and seven nights without getting tired. I wondered to myself how he believed these crazy stories, but then I thought of things from his perspective. I'm sure if I had told him the story of Noah's ark, he would have thought I was nuts too! Don't think this is blasphemy or anything, but think about it-one single man built an ark that held two of every animal in the world that held up through forty days and forty nights of rain....it's quite the story! And if I didn't believe in God and his power I would have heard the story and thought people were crazy for believing it. But I've grown up learning about Noah's ark, just like he's grown up learning his stories. So it was just kind of an enlightening trip for me, I really enjoyed it!

P.S. Does anyone know why my font changes colors half way through? I can't figure it out and it's driving me crazy.

Up to Date

I guess it's about time for a new post! I haven't uploaded any pictures recently, so this one will just have to be boring words. I don't really have much to post about, just updating all of you! So here you go-

1. My birthday is in TWO days! Woohoo! I will be 23. I have one year until I start sounding old ha ha. I don't know why, but 24 just sounds so old to me.

2. Andy got a job at WMR which is a metal recycling plant in Provo. He isn't crazy about it, but they really like him there, and it gives us an income, so we won't be complaining anytime soon.

3. I got hired back at Buckle!!! I am pretty flippin excited about this. This year I get to actually do sales, where last year I was just in charge of dressing manikins and making the store look good. I think I will like sales better.:) And I will like it MUCH more than tutoring, even though I am still suffering through that...i'm still not sure why.

4. I only have four weeks left of this semester (19 more school days total, 13 more clinic days and 4 more fridays tuoring), then I start my LAST SEMESTER. I can smell the diploma!!!

5. I've been cooking up a storm since we moved into our new apartment. I have tried so many new recipes, and have found lots of things that Andy and I love! (Thanks to Pinterest and Miranda)

6. Andy and I have decided we are going on a trip when I graduate to Havasupai in AZ. My friend and I were planning a big friend trip there last year, but then she got engaged and that all went down the drain. But I have still wanted to go! So we are going for my graduation trip.

7. I am pretty much DYING to buy a house. I HATE paying rent. HATE it. With a passion. HATE. I feel like we are literally throwing money in the garbage. So we are looking at our options. It will probably still be awhile until we do, because we aren't sure how easy it will be to sell our contract for our apartment, so we will probably just stay put until it's done. But when it is, we are outta here!!

So that is that. Not much, but I can't really think of anything too exciting happening right now. Which is fine with me! Things are calm and I like it.

My First Class IV

So I know you are all probably going to think i'm nuts after this post, but I don't care, I love this! This past week in clinic I got my first class IV patient which means he had LOTS for me to clean. This man didn't speak English very well and had NEVER been to the dentist. Jackpot!!!! I have been waiting to work on a hard patient because I feel pretty confident cleaning easy patients. So Wednesday was my lucky day!! This man had serious periodontitis. It's sad to say, but he will actually be losing some teeth because it was so bad. The bone that was holding his teeth in was completely gone in some areas. So it was basically just his gums holding those teeth in his mouth. But it was so exciting to see in person!! We learn about these type of patients, but rarely do we see the ones that are THIS BAD. My instructors said he is one of the hardest patients I will probably ever have. The calculus on his teeth has been there for at least 15 maybe 20 years, so it's going to take me a long time to finish cleaning him. It took me 30 min just to clean THREE teeth!! And i'm still not done with them!! But i'm so happy that I was lucky enough to get him as a patient. I will learn so much from working on him!:)

I know it might not look like there is too much to clean on the back of his teeth, but there is 6-7 mm if calculus underneath his gums that I have to clean off. Yikes!!!

Our New Home

Now that we are finally home from Wyoming we can actually have a home. Hurray!! We found a cute little place in Orem about ten minutes away from school. Nice! So while Andy was working his last week for Vivint, I came home and set up house. It was lots of work, but I think it turned out pretty darn well! I haven't finished the kitchen or our bedroom yet, but I think I am going to take a little break from all the decorating. I've drained all my creative juices!! So here's what I have done so far-

Our living room

Our new couches

Our TV and entertainment center

Our end table and lamp

The other wall of our living room

Our bathroom

The bathroom counter

Our kitchen (which isn't finished yet)

The cute little table we bought

Again, the kitchen

And another kitchen picture

The beginning of our bedroom (I still have lots to finish)

Then we have another room, but it's pretty much our throw-anything-in-it room so I didn't thinks a picture would be a good idea :)

Only One More!!!

I only have ONE more year of school!!! Two semesters. Just TWO! AAAAAAHHHHH! As I am looking at my schedule and getting all geared up to go back to school, it's finally hitting me that after Preschool, Kindergarten, Elementary, Junior High, High School, and four years of college I will be free in TWO SEMESTERS. It's an exciting/scary thing. I'm used to school! I've only spent five years of my life not in school, pretty much all of them I have forgotten, so what's it going to be like?? But I can't wait to find out! Really though, I will definitely be sad to graduate from my program. For the first time I am so excited to go back to school! I love what I'm learning, and I love all the people I get to be around every day. I still have one more school year to soak it all up, and i'm sure by the end I will be ready to be done. But for now i'm excited to go back. Bring on the books!!!

Casper, WY

I figured I would update my blog since I'm confined to sitting on the bed in our hotel room. Andy found a frog at the river today, and decided to bring it home. Well...now we can't find it. So instead of risking finding it with my foot, I think I'll just wait for him to come home

and look for it.:) But I wanted to blog about the town we are in now. We moved from Lander a little over a week ago and came here to Casper. I must say, this is DEFINITELY my favorite place in Wyoming so far. There is so much to do here!! We've floated the river three times, gone for a little hike to a waterfall, they actually have normal stores here to go shopping in (Yay!!), and there are lots of other sales reps and technicians here, so we have lots of socializing to do. And they even have good radio stations! This made me SOO happy ha ha.

I've missed music! But my two favorite things we've done have been floating the Platte river and our mini hike. Floating the river is so relaxing, and a nice opportunity to work on my tan. At one spot in the river there are some pretty awesome man-made rapids. The first time we went on them there was so much water in the river that the rapids were HUGE! We for sure needed life jackets, but we were already on the river so... They really were kind of scary, but that's what made it so exciting! Today when we went the water level had dropped about a foot, so it wasn't as fun. But

yesterday we went on a hike (it was more like a trail) up to a waterfall. It was beautiful! Then we climbed up the waterfall and sat and looked at an amazing view!! I'm sad that we are leaving here soon. Tomorrow is our last day here, then we pick up and move to Cheyenne. Hopefully I like it just a much.

My no good, very bad day

So Thursday was definitely NOT the best day of my life. You know how you have those days where you just want to throw your hands in the air and shout "I give up!" and then run and hide under your covers until the day is over? Ya, it was that kind of day. So stupid little things happened that morning that weren't Earth shattering, but just kind of made me think "bummer". Like the fact that this hotel doesn't have a blow dryer, and that I lost my make-up somewhere along the move. And then when I went to make lunch I found that all our meat had gone bad because the ice in our cooler had melted faster then I thought it would. Then we found out that Andy hadn't gotten a second interview at Syracuse Fire Department when he felt so sure he had done really well in his first one. So our day was just kind of a bummer day, but we were grinning and baring it! Then around 1 pm we got called to a job, so we gathered all our tools and headed out. So we are driving down the road at MAX 45 mph and my hood starts to bounce!! So Andy hits the breaks, but not before the hood catches another wind and flies completely open, snapping off the hinges that hold it on to my car and breaking my windshield. I scream because it scares the junk out of me, and he hurries and pulls to the side of the road. We get out to look at it, and my hood is SO mangled, and barely even attached to my car. My windshield is cracked along the bottom too. We both kind of stood there dumb-struck thinking to ourselves "What in the....?!" We have no clue how it happened! We haven't looked under my hood in at least a month!! Not really knowing who or what to be angry at, we shrug our shoulders and get back in the car and head back to the hotel. So yesterday we go to a mechanic that was recommended to us by a local and he tells us that to get it back to its original state it will be over $1,100.00 Say what?! Um I think I will just drive without a hood for awhile sir. And we left. So then Andy calls his mechanic at home and he says he found us a hood for $120 and he wouldn't charge us for labor. Woohoo!! So we just ripped the hood off my car the rest of the way, and we get to drive five hours home Monday to get it fixed, then five hours back. Dang. But we get our car fixed for a good price, so it's worth it! So needless to say, I'm so glad Thursday is over!!!!

On To Lander, WY!!

Lander, WY...not much to say about it! We just got here yesterday, so we haven't had a chance to see much of the town. Like every other town here in Wyoming, it's pretty small. There are a few things I really like about Wyoming, and one of them is how many old buildings there are here. You know when you watch a movie that's set back in the 50's and you kind of wish things were still like that? Well here (especially in Lander) things pretty much are. Like the movie

theater sign is one like I've only seen in movies where it sticks out over the top of the entrance and has the blinking lights going all the way around it. I got a kick out of that. And everything just seems really small town and everyone knows everyone. You can walk down main street and walk into these old shops that people still own and run.

Of course i'd never buy any ofit because it's all stuff that has actually been there since the fifties and looks like it hasbeenpreviously used, but it's still fun to go in and look around. Things like those old porcelain cats that old ladies collect are a hot item in this state. We are staying at the Frontier Inn which is kind of fun. It's set up like a fort! And it's all made out of wood (even the bed frames) and they have bears and horses and lots of different silhouettes of animals all over the place. It definitely makes me feel like we are in cowboy country! Andy really wants a cowboy hat so he can fit in, and I think I'll surprise him with one because he looks pretty darn cute in them!!

Wyoming-The Equality State

Welp, Andy and I are here in WY now, and have been for about three weeks. We are here for work installing security systems for Vivint, and yes I am working a power drill right along side Andy. Whenever I told people what my summer plans were I would get the eyebrow raise and the question "YOU are doing it too?" Yep!! What else am I going to do? Sit in the hotel and beat my head against the wall? No thank you! I wasn't looking forward to it, but it actually hasn't been too bad. Granted it would be a lot better had we gone to New York or Florida to install, but with all we had to come home for we needed to be closer than that. So Wyoming it was! But on the bright side, now we know we never ever want to live here, so that's good in a way ha ha.

We started in Rock Springs, which from talking to people sounds like it's pretty much the worst part of this state. Who knew! We moved from there about a week ago, and we're now in Evanston, which is nice because we can go home on weekends and see our families. Another good thing is we will get to be here on the 4th. No lame UT fireworks for us!! We're going to load up on all the illegal stuff and have ourselves a party! My friend Bobbi lives here and she says that the 4th is the one day that Evanston is the best place to be. I'm excited!! So we are here until mid-July, and from then on I have no clue where we'll go. They are starting to move techs way up North to Sheridan and Montana, so I'm guessing we will be soon to follow.

Wyoming is an interesting place, not like Utah much. I

don't think I've seen a "nice" house here more than three, maybe four times. The majority of the houses in Rock Springs, and a good share here in Evanston, are all trailer homes. Even if a person is making quite a bit of money (around 100,000 a year) they still live in really old, run-down homes. Then the more money they make, the more trailers they add on to their first. Kinda funny. And people here like to drive the speed limit (ugh). I was shocked when we got to Rock Springs and their main road was 35 mph, and people were ACTUALLY GOING 35 MPH. Not a mile over! And if you did, you got a ticket. Luckily WE weren't the ones that found that out, but our buddy John got a ticket going 40. And groceries are so expensive here! We talked to one lady that would drive all the way to Riverdale in Ogden to go to Costco because she hated how much groceries were here. Nuts!! And as a dental hygiene student I can't help but notice how many people are missing half their teeth. Some

times even ALL of them. And they aren't even old enough to be in dentures!! It's the stereotypical hick cowboy around here. Gives me a little chuckle every once in awhile.:)

Even with all of WY drawbacks, I am so glad we came. Work is successful and we are doing really well here. And it has been the perfect opportunity for us. With how everything worked out before we came here, and how we even found out about this job I know this is where we are supposed to be. It's an adventure for Andy and I, and I love being able to spend so much time with him. So here's to hoping the rest of the summer goes this well!!

June 2, 2011

Alright, so I'm sure all of you know that I have had A LOT going on lately. What a wonderful couple of weeks it has been!! So many exciting things have been happening and I have so much to blog about. The thing I'm most excited to write about is MY WEDDING DAY!!! What a wonderful day it was! It started bright and early at 5:30 am when I got up. Fortunately I was able to get some sleep the night before, so when my alarm went off, I was out of my bed like a racehorse. I was waiting for the jitters to hit me, but the whole morning I felt so calm and ready to marry my sweetheart....until we got to the temple and handed them our recommends. I felt like I wanted to throw up! Andy kept laughing at me because he knew how nervous I was. But then we walked in and started getting ready and my mind went to other things, so I was alright. We sat in the Celestial room of the Salt Lake Temple and we were both in awe at how beautiful

and detailed it was. They came in and told us that our guests were ready for us and we were on our way in to be sealed! We walked in the room and of course I just started crying. It was so awesome to

walk into a beautiful room filled with all the people who truly love us. Our sealer was amazing as well! It was such a perfect morning!

After that we went and did the usual pictures on the steps, and then we got to go do our video. I love how it turned out! The wind was a bit of a pain to try and work around, but overall it was so much fun shooting it. This is the first draft with just the temple, but another one is to come with our reception as well. You can watch it here- http://www.vimeo.com/24701293

Then came our reception. It was an outdoor reception at the Victorian in Layton, and we were VERY nervous that it was going to rain.

Everything was set up outside, and while we were taking pictures it started to sprinkle. I was pretty stressed, and I will admit I turned into Bridezilla there for a minute (Sorry family). But it cleared

up, and while it was a little chilly, the weather was perfect! We had lots of friends and family show up and we were so grateful for everyone that came. We cut the cake, tossed the bouquet and garter, then rode off on the back of a firetruck. It was such a memorable night! One I will never forget.

June 2, 2011 was and will forever be the best day of my life. I'm so incredibly grateful I married Andy, and that he wanted to marry me. What a perfect day for the both of us!!

So Close!!!

We are down to 16 DAYS!! (Since today is pretty much over.) 16 days until i'm a married woman...Ho-ly Cow. I just can't even wait! It seems like we've been engaged for forever. I am through with all the planning, I just want to be married already! But this last month before the wedding has been the most fun. With all the showers and last minute details it has been a very busy month! I'm definitely glad I am home and a lazy bum with no job so that I can get everything done on all the little lists I find around the house with my name on them (thanks mom :)). But all the little things are done as well, so now I get to sit here and wait....and wait...and...wait. It's hard with Andy being in Wyoming until two days before the wedding, but we're survivin'. Can I just say I am so grateful for Skype!!!!!!!! At least I get to see him even if he's in another state. I'd probably go crazy without that.

Another thing I am counting down the days to is May 31st-the day I take my endowments out. That's two weeks from tomorrow!! Woot woot! I am so excited, which is honestly a relief. Growing up I was kind of afraid of the temple. I always wanted a temple marriage, but the temple was sort of a mysterious thing for me. Now that I am older and I understand a little more about the importance of it all and the opportunity for blessings, I can't wait to go through the temple. TWO WEEKS!!!

RCA Graduation

Yesterday Andy graduated from the Recruit Candidate Academy. WOOHOOO!!! This means he can now be a real firefighter :) I'm so proud of him!! It was a long, hard semester, but with a whole lot of prayer and hard work he did it. He's now applying at stations in Davis County, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that something good will happen for us. So yesterday I got to go to his graduation, and it was actually pretty fun (graduations aren't usually my idea of a good time). We got to watch this really cool video his class made. It's on Youtube, so you can go watch it here-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RO_IpqZnDoM. Then we got to watch him get his certificates, and after that he took us on a tour around the school. Then off to Texas Roadhouse we went! It was a very good night :)

Congratulations Andy!! I'm so proud of you!!!!!!

Best Day of My Life...So Far

Ok so I think it's about time to post about my exciting news....I got an A on my Radiography test!! Ha ha just kidding. I'M ENGAGED!!!! It's taken me awhile to post about this, I know. So it happened almost three weeks ago on Feb. 5th. Andy and I had been talking about getting married for a little while, so our parents wanted to meet each other. We had plans to go out to dinner with my parents and his parents so they could talk and get to know each other. So me and my parents were just going to meet him and his at the restaurant we were eating at, and as we were sitting in the kitchen waiting to leave, I hear sirens going off down the street. Now for those of you that don't know, Andy is in the Fire Academy at UVU. So as soon as I heard the fire sirens going off I knew, and I started FREAKING OUT. I ran out to the front porch and up pulls a shiny, red fire truck with a big sign on it that says "Lexi will you marry me." I just stood on the porch with my hands over my mouth not really knowing what to do. I felt frozen in place, nervous, and insanely excited all at the same time. My mom came out behind me and said "Well, get down there!" So I ran down to the driveway, and he jumped out of the truck in a suit and tie with flowers in one hand and a ring in the other. I was shaking so bad!! Ha ha it was all so exciting!!! He got down on one knee and said "Lexi I love you so much. Will you marry me?" And then of course I said YES! This whole time I was oblivious to everything around me, so when we turned around I saw that his whole family had been there taking pictures and attempting to videotape it all. What a wonderful night, and such a creative way to propose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have pictures, but I'm posting from Andy's computer and I don't know how to work it ha ha

Bear Lake

This past weekend Andy and I went up to Bear Lake and stayed with a couple of Andy's friends in their family's BEAUTIFUL cabin. Since we had Monday off of school for Martin Luther King day we thought it would be a fun way to spend our weekend. It was a really fun, unfortunately short little get-away. I brought my camera specifically to take pictures to post on my blog, but did I? No. I'm pretty much the worst picture taker ever. Anyways, obviously we couldn't play on the lake, but we were able to go sledding and hook the sleds up to the four wheeler (scary, painful, but pretty darn fun :D), play Curses, watch movies, sleep, eat, eat, and eat. It was a great time and I'm so glad that Jordan and Nicole let us come spend the weekend with them!! Hopefully we will get to go back this summer when we can play on the water!

Sub For Santa

So I know I'm a little late on this, but I thought it would be better late than never! A few weeks ago Mykenzie and I did Sub for Santa that RC Willey put on. My dad called and asked if I wanted to go help little kids shop for Christmas presents and my response was something like "Heck ya!!!" The he said "Well....before you get too excited...you would have to be in SLC at 6:15am." Bummer. But I did it anyways!! Me and Kenz woke up and met at 5:00 (ugh) and started drivin! We got to the address they had given us and the building was pitch black. I was not a happy camper. I was worried we had got out of bed insanely early for nothing, so we called dad and tried to figure out if we had the wrong day, the wrong building, or what. So he told us to look for a Sorenson Multicultural Center, and that was definitely not where we were. We got back in the car and went a block over and found where we were supposed to be. We waited in a looong line of volunteers, then finally got the little boy we were assigned to help. His name was Fernando, and he didn't speak two words of English. The one and only word I understood the entire morning was crayons ha ha. But they put us on these big charter buses and we set off for Wal Mart. There were cops blocking off the roads because we had about 15 huge buses all in a line, and it would have taken forever to get there if they had just driven there on their own. So we all got off all the buses, and there were SO many kids. Needless to say the toy section was a madhouse!! But it was really fun helping Fernando shop for Christmas presents!! He was basically pulling any toy he saw into the cart, so Kenz and I help guide him to the ones we thought he might actually have fun playing with. Then we went and picked out some clothes and socks for him to take home too. After we were done shopping we loaded everything back on the bus and went back to the Cultural Center. I was so glad that I went, even though I was incredibly tired by 10. It was fun to be in the hustle and bustle of things and know that we were helping out little Fernando pick out the only Christmas presents he would get. I love doing things like this!!!