The Breakfast Club

Yesterday morning was spent cooking up a storm with new friends. Menu: Chocolate chip waffles with strawberries, bananas and whip cream drizzled with chocolate syrup. Fried potatoes with green peppers, tomatoes and onions. Sausage. Bacon. Scrambled eggs. Orange Juice. Milk. Was it overboard? Most definitely. Was it delicious? Heck yes.

Lolich's Family Farm

On the way home from school I stopped at Lolich's to pick up some hand picked cherries to treat myself for my successful week at school. They are DELICIOUS too.

The total for the cherries came to $2.34 so I gave the girl a $5 bill and 4 pennies. So she gives me back the change for the $5 AND the 4 pennies. Her response....."I didn't know what to do with the 4 pennies." Really...?? Are you serious? Our math system is failing on us. We rely way too much on technology. We need to start using our own heads a little bit more. That's a challenge people!

The Craziness of School

I had a HUGE test this week. We spent two weeks on about 10 different subjects: cardiology, respiratory, renal, arterial pressure, acid-base, endocrinology, immunology, the autonomic nervous system, pharmacology for all the previous mentioned items (included knowing effects of alpha and beta blockers). It was a LOT of information for just 2 weeks. That monstrous exam should have been a semester final normally. Let's just say I didn't sleep much this last week. I started working in close collaboration with a certain Dr. Pepper.....maybe you're familiar with him. Drank a 2 L bottle in 3 days. Oh yeah!

Test day came and I really was not feeling comfortable with all the material. That's just how it's gonna have to be from here on out. Like I said it was a huge test, 86 questions in 90 minutes. Well 80 minutes rolled around and I started freaking out. I had saved a number of questions for the end to review that I had either left blank or wanted to review one more time. As I was working on them, the teacher announced 5 minutes left and then I literally started panicking. I still had way more questions left to answer/review than I had time for. And at that point I could not even think clearly enough to be rational since I was panicking about the time. That was the end. I knew it was over. I had failed. I didn't have adequate time to perform well. I was doomed......

We all had to sit around for an hour to wait for the tests to be scored. I logged in to check my score........I HAD PASSED!! Couldn't have done it without my group though. We take a group test after our individual test. We all rocked it together. Thankfully I didn't have to spend my whole weekend studying to retake the test again Monday morning.

Do you see how crazy this is though?? I signed up for it though, and love it. Yes, I know......

4th of July Weekend

My roommate, Abbey, got married last Saturday and so I flew to UT for the wedding. Elder Holland performed the ceremony. Bonus. It was AMAZING to be sitting there in the same room as him AND in the temple no less. It was a beautiful ceremony (Salt Lake Temple) and he had some really amazing things to say. I'm lucky I got to be there. Plus he said "hi" to me. Oh yeah!

The wedding was perfect timing as it was July 4th weekend. Double bonus. I love the 4th in UT. Celebrations started early on Saturday. My roommate, Amy, and I started off the celebrations with some shave ice (LOVE it!), followed by a rockin' pool party and BBQ. I got to see a lot my peeps from my old ward (MISS 'em!) and then we played some basketball in the pool. Yes, I showed all the boys up. It was a lot of fun.

After the pool party I met up with Elise & Erik for the Stadium of Fire. First time for all of us. And boy was it sweet! My favs were the sky divers that landed IN the stadium, Brad Paisley, and the fireworks. Oh. My. Gosh. The fireworks were AMAZING. Best finale I've ever seen, partly because they shook the whole stadium and my sis and I were going crazy. Just ask Erik. According to him we were screaming and shaking like crazy. Bahahaha. K, I admit it. We kind of were.....

Sunday night was a midnight BBQ (aka annual 1st BBQ of the 4th). It was SO much fun. Sariah, Amy, Dave and I were sparkler-ing it up. Take a peek.

After going to bed at 2:30 am, I woke up at 5:30 am to go to one of my fav parts....the balloon launch! Except they ended up not launching them due to weather. Bummer. Talk about disappointment. Didn't matter though. Anything with Sariah is guaranteed to be a blast.

I hit up the parade afterwards with some friends and then topped it off with a picnic up the canyon with my family. It was one of the most fun weekends ever. I miss UT tons and all my family and friends. Guess I'll just have to go back soon is all.

Punchbowl Falls

Saturday turned out to be a GORGEOUS day, not a cloud in the sky. Good thing too cause I was going hiking with some friends. We hiked in the Gorge, which is absolutely beautiful this time of year. The Columbia river divides Oregon from Washington and that is known as the Gorge. Hiking destination: Punchbowl Falls. It was a pretty short hike - took about 30-40 minutes and I kept thinking I was in Jurassic Park or something. The trees are super tall and it's super green. Punchbowl Falls consists of the lower falls....

...which I totally would have jumped into 1) had I worn my swimsuit, 2) had it not been in the shade and 3) and it not been freezing cold water. Ok, let's be honest.....I totally would have jumped if someone had just said, "I dare you."

Ok, so it gets a little more crazy. Some dudes (in my group and other groups) decided they were going to jump off the cliff next to the upper falls. We're talking like 85 feet here. Crazy! You can't even see the water in this picture, but take it from me.....that is a TALL cliff. I stood where you see all those dudes standing and it's a loooong way down. Looks awesome though! It was fun to watch.