A new day

You know those days where it feels like everything that possibly could has gone wrong?  Yesterday was one of those. It started with me forgetting to bring my water bottle to work (I drink a lot of water so that is a very traumatic thing) and falling asleep during a meeting with my preceptor and all her bosses (yes, everyone noticed). And it was only downhill from there...  By the end of the day I was so ready to just go to bed and be done with it.

Isn't it wonderful how bad days (usually) only last one day?  I woke up this morning (after actually sleeping a decent amount of time knowing I had another early meeting today) feeling wonderful. The day went great and I decided my preceptor doesn't feels as negative about me as I was sure she did yesterday.  In fact we spent half the day gossiping away.  And the best part about today?  I finally have contacts again!! After work I went and got the contact exam.  I have been holding out ever since my contacts ran out in China, I kept saying it was too expensive.  Eric finally told me it was my birthday present so that I would do it. :) How good this feels after a year and a half with only glasses!  Can you tell I am happy?

How time flies...

It feels like just yesterday that I was here...

...at the airport in Jakarta, Indonesia with my MTC buddies (Elder Trevor Ross, Elder Michael Cheney, and Sister Tashina Etter) meeting our (amazing!!) mission president, President Jensen. What fun we had together helping each other as we struggled with the language in the MTC and then later as we battled the bugs, heat and everything else in Indonesia. Hard to believe its already been almost five years since we started our missions together.  These wonderful people will always hold a special place in my heart.

 Last Saturday, I was able to go to the sealing of Trevor to his bride, Marie, in the San Diego temple. It was a beautiful ceremony and I am so happy for him and Marie!

And Michael is also getting married this month.  My elders are sure growing up!  I miss you all, especially you Mbak Tashina - pink suitcases and all. :)

Weekend with the family

May happens to be a big birthday month in my family and so Eric and I drove up to my parents this last weekend to spend two days partying it up in Fontana.  It was kind of nice having the birthday fun spread out over more than just my actual birthday - made for a 'birthday season' as my day called it.  I could go for a birthday season every year! :)

The birthday group: Eric, my little brother Edward (he is actually an April birthday, but we let him join in too), me and my niece Beckah (we share the same birthday).  And there are still a couple that couldn't be there.

The amazingly yummy cake that Eric made for me on my birthday.  You can find the recipe here.

The other, more important reason we came for the weekend was that it just happened to be Mothers Day. So we got to celebrate my mom and the amazing mother she is to all of us. I only hope that someday I will be as loving and wonderful of a mom as she has always been to me.  I love you, Mamma!

My amazing Mom

Easter

Eric and I had a nice, simple Easter with just the two of us.  We had our Easter baskets (Eric was very excited to get his basket), colored eggs, and had our very untraditional Easter dinner of chicken and asparagus. 

The day before we had a stake service project at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery. We got to wear the bright yellow Mormon Helping Hands vests (pretty stylish) and cleaned the gravestones. It was a great way to start Easter.

Looking good!

Probably the prettiest spot I've ever seen for a cemetery.  It overlooks the ocean and the view is amazing. 

Finally done

Today I had my case study presentation- which is the major project of my internship.  It feels so good to have that done! It's like finals week, stepping out of your last final, finally able to breathe and relax a little. Except that I'm not done, I have to go back tomorrow...

This project marks the end of my clinical rotation, which I have been in for the past six months. And for about half that time I have been working on this project.  If any of you have nothing better to do you can read my report, I thought it was interesting at least :). Though I guess I shouldn't put anyone but Eric through that. The patient I did the case study on had end-stage AIDS with complicating opportunistic infections which made providing adequate nutrition very difficult. Yep, interesting stuff.

Next week I will start doing my community and outpatient rotations.  I get to start out at the eating disorder clinic. That will be interesting, though probably pretty depressing.

Just to make this post a little more fun, here are some pictures that I meant to post and never did. We interns put on a nutrition fair at a local elementary school a few weeks ago for National Nutrition Month (which was March as I'm sure everyone knew, right? :)- so fun!

Here is me with the other interns, Edna, Natasha, Sam, and Mei- super fun girls! (there are a couple med students mixed in who were also helping out)

Isn't that clever- Sam (another intern) had the kids make a 'plant' out of veggies on a pita. Can you see his tree?

At my booth we had a blast talking about fruit- yum!

When life gives you lemons...

...an inspiration to us all.

Running

Running as a form of exercise must be something like being pregnant. If you remembered how painful it was, you'd be a lot less likely to try it again.