GOLDEN BIRTHDAY!

My GOLDEN birthday was last wednesday. I turned 23 on the 23rd of September. It was more like a birthday week, than just a day. Even though I had a party last year, this birthday definitely topped that one. I had 4 birthday dinners, 3 birthday cakes and a huge cupcake, and a birthday lunch.

Sunday night we had everyone over for dinner at the house. Mom of course made my favorite, Beef Stroganoff, for dinner. She also got me an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen that actually had my name spelled correctly on it :) Emily, Matthew and kids got me haviannas flip flops, which I have been wanting forever! And they were gold, just like my birthday. Thanks Emily!



Monday we had dinner at Chili's on Las Vegas Blvd with Mom, Pop, Emily and I. I don't think we have eaten at Chili's since they closed the one by our house and we used to go there for every birthday. It was so good! They brought me out a chocolate lava cake and sang to me there too. Em and I went to the Belz Outlet mall after and I finally found some shoes for Lindsey's wedding this weekend!


Tuesday night I went to Texas De Brazil with my friend Pranil from school. It is a Brazilian style restaurant where they bring around big sticks with meat on them and shave off pieces for you at your table. They also had a salad bar with tons of food besides salad. It was fun to try something new.


Wednesday, my actual birthday, mom made me pancakes for breakfast. At clinicals, all the techs and one of the doctors signed a card for me and got me a gift card. Then, the other student at my clinical site that goes to UNLV with me, took me out to lunch at the pizza place near our site. He also bought me an ice cream cake which was so delicious! That night I invited about 50 people in my phonebook to come hang out and eat at Cafe Rio with me. About 20-25 people showed up. It was really fun! I got a new hoodie, scrubs, flowers, candles, sunglasses, sand, and money. After dinner I went to see a band play at Beauty Bar on Fremont street with a friend of mine.





Friday, the secretary at my clinical site made me a double layer chocolate cake. She brings cakes in every week, which are really hard to resist. She also makes them for everyone's birthdays and made me mine on Friday since my friend brought the ice cream cake on Wednesday.

My birthday week was seriously so amazing. I was happy all week long! Thank you everyone for the presents and calls. Let's see how 23 treats me!

Shaken Up

I have quite a bit to write about lately, but right now I am going to tell you all about what happened to me today.

I started my summer session of clinicals at a clinic on Maryland Pkwy and Vegas Valley today. It is right down the street from Sunrise Hospital. So far I really like the people that work there and even though they have really old machines, I like that I will know how to use any machine after this. I decided to go to lunch somewhere since we have an hour, but really had to go to the bathroom. So, I pulled into a 7-11 on Sahara and Maryland Pkwy and noticed a man lying on the ground at the front of the store. I put my car in park and as I got out I noticed there was a puddle of blood by the man's head. I yelled and asked a lady walking into the store if anyone had called 911 about this man. She finally looked over and noticed him and ran in to get them to call. I immediately called 911 myself and ran over to the guy. He was lying on his back and blood was coming from his head, his ear and he was foaming at the mouth. His eyes were open but he was not talking so I just kept encouraging him to breath and told him someone was on their way to help. He was choking on his spit and eventually threw up. I tried to wipe it away with some towels and I didn't want to turn him on his side in case he had a head or neck injury. I began crying right as the ambulance showed up. I went inside the 7-11 and washed my hands and started crying even harder. I went outside and filled out a police report and told them what I saw. I had blood on my scrubs so I went back to the clinic and asked them if I could go home. I came home and took a nap, but still felt like crap afterward. I can't stop thinking about this man and what I saw. How many people passed by him and did nothing? How long was he lying there before I pulled up? Who was this man and did he have anyone? I just feel shaken up still...

70's Murder Mystery Party!

Megan Miller and I decided to throw a murder mystery party on Saturday. She has had this game since high school, but didn't remember anything about the characters. There were 8 characters in the game, so we had to be limited on who we chose to join us for the party. I was Chaka Moon and Megs was Angina Palpatory. I wore Mom's bridesmaid dress from Aunt Toni's wedding! All the names were a play on words. We did a four course meal in between each part of the game. First, we introduced our characters. Then we ate fondue cheese with bread and vegetables. We played round 1, which gave us more clues about what each character had to do with the murder. Then, we ate salad and garlic bread. Round 2 gave us more clues about the characters. We then ate baked zita, that Megs made and it was delicious! Round 3 we began questioning who the murderer may have been. For dessert we had fondue chocolate and cheescake. Then, in round 4 we found out who the murderer was... ME!!! I had no idea that I was the murderer until the end just like everyone else. Apparantly I married the man who was murdered a few weeks before and told him I had had his baby. It was not really his baby and when he found out he wanted to annul our marriage. Well, I was not having that! So, I killed him for all his money. It was a very racey game, but really fun!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

To all the mothers in my life, I love you more than you know! Thank you for being amazing examples to me.

SPRING BREAK 2009

This year's Spring Break was not exactly what I was hoping for, but it was still fun. I worked the beginning of the week and requested off Thursday through Sunday. On Thursday I went with Matt and his dad to Nelson's Landing at Lake Mead to go fishing. Well we soon discovered, after arriving, that there are not many fish to be caught in Lake Mead. So, Matt and I just hiked around and explored while his dad hiked around too. That night, I went and saw the Fast and the Furious 3. It was actually really good.

Friday morning, Matt, Jen, Preston, Josh, and I left Vegas at 8 am to head down to Southern California. We went to Laguna Beach when we got there and ate at BJ's since I get my discount there. The boys played basketball while Jen and I people watched. We checked in at the Hyatt, where we stayed, and then decided to go to a Clippers game. When we got down to the Staples Center, though, the cheapest tickets were 90 dollars a piece! So, we ended up going to Hollywood and walking around. It was fun, but felt like the longest day of my life since we had been in the car most of the day.

Saturday Morning we found out the Angels vs. Red Sox game was at 1pm instead of 7pm. I mixed that time up with the Padres game. Jen and I really wanted to go to the beach so we opted to go to a beach on the way to San Diego and go to the Padres game that night. We went to Oceanside, since it was on the way and it was probably the worst beach to go to. There was tar on the beach and we all either got it stuck to our feet or shoes. The boys played frisbee while Jen and I tanned, then we headed up to San Diego for the game. We wanted to eat before the game so we didn't have to pay a ton for food in the stadium. I called Kara and told her we were going to be eating at Subway, down the street from Petco Stadium. She told me she wanted to come see me after she found out she no longer had to work. It was so much fun getting to see her and Hallie. After I said goodbye to them, we headed the game and stayed til the 7th inning. After the game we headed home and got back to Vegas at 2:30am.

Jen and I at Oceanside

Boys at Laguna

Hollywood Chinese Theatre

Padres Game

Petco Stadium

New Nephew, New Fireplace, New Job, New Boy :)

I know it has been forever since I last posted! What can I say? I am a really busy girl. Last Friday, March 20, 2009, my beautiful sister, Emily Ann, gave birth to a baby boy named James Matthew. He looks just like Sarah did as a baby to me. He is so calm and has the longest fingers! I am so grateful we have Matthew and Emily living so close and we can see James so often.


THE FIREPLACE IS DONE BEFORE CHRISTMAS 2009! Yes it is true we finally had the tile guy come and do the fireplace and it looks amazing! I got a text from mom yesterday and it said "The tile looks so cool!" It looks pretty amazing... now onto the next project.


I quit working at White Chocolate Grill as a server and am now a server at BJ's Restaurant. I love working there, but it is always stressful being a server. The food is great, management is cool and I have met a lot of new friends. I started dating someone new 5 weeks ago and he would not be happy with me if he knew I was blogging about him. I like him a lot :)

The Most AMAZING People In My Life

My parents are the most amazing people I have ever known. I told them yesterday they are the best parents I have ever had in my life! :)

MOM is beautiful, loving, selfless, friendly, funny, generous, humble, hard working, virtuous, spiritual, encouraging, and supportive. I could go on and on with words that describe what a wonderful mother and person she is. I don't know a single person that dislikes my mother. Having eight children alone shows how amazing she is, and she still looks good too! Over the past four months that my car has been in Barstow, mom has let me use her car when I didn't have a rental car. She would drive the 1966 VW Beetle, that we have, to work everyday and allow me to take her car to school and work. She puts her children above herself in every situation and I never hear her complain about it. She does not care about having the newest car or clothes. She cares that we are all happy and living our lives in a way that will bring us back to our Heavenly Father. She is optimistic about life and never let's us see her discouraged. I love my mother more than life itself. I hope one day I can be half the wife, mother, and woman that she is. I love you Mommy!


POP is funny, handsome, encouraging, fiesty, opinionated, strong, powerful, athletic, spiritual, persuasive, and generous. My father is one of the funniest people I know, which helps when it comes to all the freak outs I have. He encourages me whenever I make a decision to do something and I can always count on his opinion whenever I am being indecisive. He has always provided for our family in every way that he could, which I'm sure was difficult at times with eight children. He loves children and I see it in his eyes every time he sees one of his grandchildren. He loves all of his children and always let us know it. If ever we needed anything, Pop would provide it for us, no matter what it took. He is selfless and gives so much. I understand more, now that I am older, what a task it must have been to have six daughters. He is such an example to me. Whatever calling he has at church, he gives tenfold and shows us what it means to be a strong member of our church. He loves our mother and shows us what a husband should be. I love my father more than life itself. I hope one day I can marry a man that is as incredible a husband and father as he has been to my mother and all of his children. I love you Poppy!

I am the luckiest girl in the world!