Happy Anniversary!!

I can't even believe it, but on Saturday Derek and I shared our 1 year anniversary!! That year flew by, but YAY we did it!!! Somehow I fed us and we survived!! We had an awesome anniversary, and I just want to say that I have an amazing husband and I love him more than anything!! I don't know what I would do without him!! Anyways, enough with the gushyness let's talk about our fun adventure!
Friday after I got off work... Derek and I made our way over to L.A. It is a 6 1/2 hour drive from our apartment! We got to our apartment... and it was disgusting! It smelt like smoke, and I was afraid to even sit on the bed! haha so luckily we found another hotel down the road that was available for 2 nights.
The next morning we woke up bright and early and made our way to 6 Flags!! The park was just like in the movies. As soon as those front gates open... everyone comes running through them screaming and racing to get to the rides before everyone else. I sat there laughing my head off at the madness and Derek insisted that we run like the rest of the crazy people so we start running through the park! Being the intellectuals that we are.... Derek and I ran to a dead end of the park, and had some women following us. Haha... so out comes the map, and we ran to the closest ride available!! Our first ride that we rode was called Goliath, and that rollercoaster was MASSIVE!!! It was a lot of fun, and we got some pretty fun rides in for the morning. Finally we decided we were going to pass out if we didn't get food in us pronto.. so we bought a $9 dinky little chickin finger with a few dinky fries. Ya... it's a little bogus that they overcharge but when you're starving you have to buy it. After lunch the rides were ridiculously long and we spent most of the time just waiting in line. That sucked, but we were able to see a couple of shows and they ended up being really good. Finally, we decided to ride one more ride before we were going to go back to the hotel. We waited in line for over an hour, and right when we got up to the gate to ride... they had technical difficulties and told people where to exit if they wanted. I was not too happy to hear this, and I was very freaked out about riding a ride after some technical difficulties. Luckily after about 15 minutes they solved the problem and thank goodness it was only a sound problem. Well... it was definately a good thing that we stood in line b/c this ride was RIDICULOUS!! I have NEVER screamed so long in my life!!! The ride takes you up the hill backwards and upside down. You then hit a little dip so it throws you forward, and then all of a sudden it flips you backwards and you go plummiting head first to the ground!! The seat itself turns 360 degrees, and it makes for an insane ride. Derek threw out a few choice words here and there... but who could blame him?! HAHA it was so crazy and so much fun, it topped off our day!! After we went to the park we went out to eat and a cute little 50's diner, and had a nice relaxing time at the hotel.
The next day we went downtown L.A. and did some shopping. If you have never been to downtown L.A. it is a lot like Mexico with some bargain shopping and some pretty awesome deals. There are also some of the scariest people that I have ever seen and I thought that we were going to die a few times! I saw so many bums, and druggies, and gimps, and some crazy stuff!! We also had to make 50 u turns, we got lost a few times, and.... we were lost trying to find our car!! I began to hyperventilate when we were lost trying to find our car, and we are walking aimlessly down the sidewalk when all of sudden a guy in front of us is screaming at some guys behind us, and yup... poor Derek and I were stuck in the middle of this fight. I thought that we might get shot or beat down to the ground, but luckily they ignored us and just went straight for each other. After being lost for about 30 min we found our car and I finally felt safe!! HAHA this made me very grateful that I do not live in the slums in the middle of all the crime! We had a pretty enjoyable time shopping, and I found quite a bit of good deals... however Derek did not which is sad, but he still enjoyed himself!! There are some pretty interesting people in the world... but they are very entertaining I will admit!!
Overall we had such an awesome anniversary!! It was not relaxing in anyway, but it was a blast and I laughed my head off!! Thank you Derek for planning an awesome trip and for being my everything!! Happy Anniversary!!

On our way to L.A. Derek is in deep concentration driving.


here are some pictures of a few of the thousands of windmills off of the highway in California.




On our way home! Derek once again with his mad driving skills!!

NEW JOB=STRESS!

Well.... now that we have been back in Arizona, things just seem to be pretty crazy!! We got home, and I had 2 more interviews. I got hired on the spot at one job, and then a few hours later the other office called and hired me. I took the job that hired me on the spot b/c they seemed to be more reliable. They didn't pay as much, but they didn't suck at communication quite as much as the other office.
I now work as a Physical Therapy Tech at Physicians Physical Therapy here in Chandler AZ Monday Wed and Fri, and I work at the Mesa clinic Tuesdays and Thursdays. So far... it has been VERY hard! haha. I work with some therapists who are very intimidating and act very superior. They are impatient about training, they are hard to ask questions, and it sucks being the new guy. This job has been such a challenge b/c it is so much knowledge to obtain!! I get a run down on Anat and Phys every day, but I honestly know that this job is going to be so great for me in the long run!! I have already learned so much, and I feel like I'm turning into a toughy slowly but surely haha. THe whole system is run by computers, so it sucks having to pull all of the patient's programs and notes up by the computer. It's really hard learning the Physical Therapy lingo, and figuring out how each therapist abbreviates it differently than the others. I am working for 3 different Therapists and they all work very differently. I then have to figure out what the exercises are by deciding how the therapist abbreviates, and show the patient the correct way to do the exercise. I have to spot them and make sure they are doing it correctly and I run them through each routine. I then have to set them up to the e-stim, ICC, High Pulse, or Ultra Sound, and then at times I set them up on ice, or heat packs. Sometimes I have to print out home programs for the patients through the computer... and for some reason, I am still very lost on this part! haha. I keep up the cleanliness of the office, fold and do laundry, santize the beds, and much more! This job is basically all of the duties that a Physical Therapy Assistant performs, minus a few details. It also sucks b/c I don't have the schooling so it is very hard to catch on to all of the medical terminology and information I must obtain. I know that I will get it... but it will take a while. All that I can do is to try my hardest! I really am learning a lot, and I am so thankful for this oppurtunity! I hope that things start to look up, and that I can start to feel comfortable with what I am doing!

Our trip back home!

Well... things are so super crazy here!! I have been having job interviews for 2 different physical therapy offices, and it has been difficult deciding which job to take and what not... but I think I may have it figured out. I will know by tomorrow what I'm doing I hope.
Anyways, Derek and I went back to Idaho Falls for the weekend b/c we had 2 weddings and this was our last chance to go home before we started work and school! So we left Wednesday after I had a job interview, and we got back to Idaho at about 2:30 a.m. Yes, it definately was so much fun!!! Thursday we went to Derek's good buddy Ren's wedding! It was a lot of fun, and Derek was able to see a lot of his friends! The ceremony was awesome, and we waited for Derek and the other groom's men to get their picture taken outside of the temple for about 2 hours it was a litte bit ridiculous. They had a dinner that night and it was so much fun seeing everyone!! After the dinner, Derek and I went to hang out with our good friend's Ryan and Sydni Pasley!! We have so much fun with them, and we can relate at almost every level it is a little bit ridiculous! We laughed our heads off with them until almost 4 in the morning and then we decided.. WOW we should probably go home and get some rest.
Friday Derek helped my mom set up her new Pilates machine which was so awesome, and then we all took turns on the machine! haha it was so much fun, but gosh it was an amazing work out! After playing around on the machine, my old roommate came over to pick something up from my house. It was great seeing her and we had a good talk, but then Derek came and got me and told me my dad had just called and was in the hospital. My dad's heart has been hurting him lately, and friday morning when he was at work the chest pain got very intense and his left arm went numb. He called his doctor and told him the symptoms and his dr. told him he'd better go to the hospital. Well my dad being the man that he is, drove himself to the hospital and very calmly told the E.R. people that he thought he may be having a heartattack. yes... this was 9:30 in the morning, and then we didn't find out until 3p.m. We all got in the car to go see him. We got in the room and he shook his head. haha he hates attention and being the center of anything so he said PLEASE DON"T MAKE A BIG DEAL as soon as we walked in the room. Haha he's so awesome I love him!! He did not have a heartattack they knew that for sure, b/c he did not realease the enzymes... or whatever they're called. Anyways they kept my dad overnight at the hospital and had to run a lot of tests on him. We left my dad for a bit and went to a family get together for my grandma's birthday who passed away. We were able to say hi, eat really quick and then we were on our way again. My mom went back to the hospital, and Derek and I went to Ren's wedding reception. We got there just in time for the dance, and we had a great night with all of our friends! Once again... we hung out with Ryan and Sydni until the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday Derek and I went over to the hospital after they had run the stress test and another test on my dad. We got there and had a nice visit, and then the dr. called my dad and told him some of the things that were wrong. He has very high blood pressure, and glucose resistent, which is very close to being diabetic so I guess with those things it mimicked a heart attack. There is something wrong with his liver and there were a lot of other things but I just don't want to say b/c I don't know the details about it so I'm just not going to talk about it until we know everything for sure. They had my dad come in Monday.. which is today, to basically have a check up and get to the bottom of it all. I am not sure if they found out anything new... but that is the basics of what I do know for sure. I am soo glad that my dad is out of the hospital, and that he is doing well!! He is the biggest health nut I know, and everyone gives him grief for it, but honestly he has to be. He has a lot of heart problems and many other health problems that run in his family, so he has to take such good care of himself. If my dad wasn't the maniac health nut that he is.... I honestly don't know if I could say that he would be here, or else he would be pretty sick otherwise. My dad works out every single day, he has run 2 marathons and 2 half marathons. He eats healthier than anyone I know, and he also knows more than anyone I know!! I admire my dad so much and he truly is a hero in my eyes!!!
So my dad is doing well, after he got released from the hospital, we went to another wedding reception for some of my dance friends from college. They had a very casual reception, and had some random dance numbers while people were mingling. After we congratulated them, we went to Derek's cousin's house and she cut and colored my hair. My heck it took 4 hours, but she did a pretty good job. I have blonde and red highlights, and she thinned the crap out of my hair!! It is so nice for Arizona weather, and for that I am grateful. After that we drove to the Olive Garden and met Ryan and Syd and his parents to eat. We ate SOO much and Derek and I felt pregnant afterwards haha. Once again... we went over to hang out with Ryan and Syd and laughed and watched movies until the wee hours of the morning!!
I am so grateful for the oppurtunity that we had to go back home!! I am so glad that my dad is doing well, and I'm grateful that he is my dad!! Derek and I are so happy that we have Ryan and Sydni as friends and we enjoyed every second we were able to spend with them!