Bath & Body Works

I've been working at bath and body works through the Christmas season and they've kept me on for floor-sets on sunday nights. A floor set is when we change the floor-either the tables or the walls-when a new product is introduced or for holidays/sales. Well, we've done lots over the last month or so. I had NO idea how hard the B&BW employees work! We are constantly moving boxes, restocking, moving more boxes and organizing. So, my most proud floorset was when I did the soap wall for the launch of the new soap line. It took from 8pm to 3am! This is a picture of me next to my wall at 3am! Cami helped me from 2-3am when she had finished her project.

Life marches on.....

It's that time again...back to school for THE LAST TIME EVER!!!! I can hardly believe that it is my last semester in Dental Hygiene school! I take my boards in the middle/end of March and then it's smooth sailing (until the job hunt beings).
Our first Christmas was wonderful! Heather (Justin's RM sister) was coming out to stay with us for a few weeks until she went up to BYU-I for school. Well, justin's mom Barb decided that it would be nice to help Heather drive out here and stay for Christmas! So we had his fam (some of them anyway) with us for Christmas! It was wonderful! We were busy running around, going shopping, going to see the lights at Temple square and downtown Ogden, to the temple. It was so fun!
On Christmas morning we woke up aroung 7ish and went down to open presents! I got Justin a guitar stand for his guitar and I had it restrung for him. He was SO excited!! I also got him a onesie for the temple. LOL! It was his fav present and he's been wanting one for SO long! He looks pretty cute in it. He got me a box of lego's that said "lets build something together." I was a little confused, but I thought it was cute. When we were all done, he was getting up off the couch to go shower and he moved the couch and there were 4 more presents underneath it! He loves to surprise me. He got me a necklace, earrings, and 2 willow tree decorations. One of them is the little boy holding a golden heart and the other is little girl with the golden heart. LOVE THEM! What a cutie! We had such a wonderful first Christmas. We finished the day eating, playing, eating, sleeping, opening TONS of presents (my mom spoils us!)and eating at moms house with everyone. It was wonderful!!!

I'm back amongst the living!

Well, this has been quite the experience for me. I've been really ill this past 10 days or so. It all started with a runny nose the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Then by Thursday and Friday I thought for sure I had the H1N1 flu! I ached everywhere, I couldn't move, I couldn't breathe, and generally just wanted to die. Well, by Saturday night it was really bad so my wonderful mom rushed me to the instacare in Ogden where I was checked and rechecked by a very puzzled doctor. Their CBC machine (blood machine) wasn't working so he couldn't check any of that stuff. So he told me I might have H1N1 and if I wasn't better by Monday to go to McKay Dee and have bloodwork done. Well, as the weekend wore on, I became Jaundice (yellow) in my skin and eyes and I still felt terrible! My Mom thought it was my gallbladder and called one of the dr's she works for and he said to get me in for an ultrasound ASAP (after the dreaded bloodwork. Meanwhile Justin's work schedule changed from 2-10pm to 5am-2pm. Good change!!! So Monday morning I drove myself to the hospital and plopped in a wheelchair and my mom took me to my appointments. I was really weak and sick and couldn't walk. First was 4 vials of blood and then to the ultrasound. The results of the ultrasound showed that my liver wasn't functioning but my gallbladder was fine (no gallbladder surgery!!) So from there I was referred to a GI doctor to figure out what the heck was wrong with my liver! Wednesday I met with him and he ordered more bloodwork (the works!) So I got 9 more vials taken. Have I ever mentioned that I HATE giving blood and usually faint? UG! I managed to stay in the chair, but it sure didn't feel very good. By Thursday, I could breathe normally but still felt sick and all around just yucky! I called the GI Dr. for the results of my blood tests and he told me I have CytoMegalo Virus (CMV). He explained that it's a virus that is in everyone's body and most adults get it once in thier life, but it has flu-like symptoms so usually it goes un-diagnosed and just goes away. He told me that I have the rare kind that has liver involvement. LUCKY ME!!! He said that I seemed to be getting better so he was happy about that, but my liver is still being affected which means (you guessed it) MORE BLOOD TESTS!!! I also had been getting lots of mucous in my eyes (they were kinda bugary-gross, I know!). Well, each day they just got worse and worse and I was in constant pain if they were open or closed. They mucous was blurring my vision so I couldn't drive or watch TV or do ANYTHING! I wanted to take my eyes out! So Thursday brought a new doctor into the picture- an eye dr. Well, he told me I have pretty bad conjunctivitis and needed some prescription eye drops and then to come back in a week to make sure the there was no damage to my eyes. (CMV can sometimes cause retinal damage). Well, Friday was more blood work to check my liver (no good results yet) and more Monday. I don't have the results of today's tests yet, we'll hope for the best. I'm feeling much better and can almost see again! Everything is just blurred, but my eyes don't hurt. Another side effect is that because my bilirubin (spelling?) levels are high, I itch constantly! I've almost scratched the skin off my legs, arms, head, and well, everywhere. But I am SO blessed to have a wonderful hubby that has taken AMAZING care of me this past week, to have a mom that has done everything but got to the moon for me, and a family that has pitched in and driven me to my many appts. I am blessed! I feel alive! This is almost over!

Thanksgiving & Black Friday

This was a busy week! I have been working on the cookbook for the Dental Hygiene girls all this week. I've been at the computer lab everyday for the last several weeks to get it done (I don't have a computer or the internet at home). Well, of Friday I turned it over to FedEx to print!!! HOORAY! This has taken lots of time and effort and I'm nearly done! YAY! They are WONDERFUL with the BEST recipes in them for only $8.00! Let me know if you'd like a copy...I have lots of extras...
Thanksgiving was wonderful! We all pitched in and created a wonderful Thanksgiving feast! I made a lemon fruit salad (my hubby's request) and 2 pumpkin pies (my first time!). We had a family join us this year. They are from Jenny's ward in North Carolina and just moved here. It is a hubby, wife, and 3 DARLING little angel girls. I am SO happy that they joined us, it was a wonderful day of eating, playing, eating, talking, eating, watching TV, and eating. I am so thankful for my family! I LOVE spending time with them!
Justin has been wanting a new TV for Christmas. We looked over the black Friday adds and decided that the prices were good enough for us to buy one Friday morning. So after choosing a few places (like Best Buy and Target) and then deciding that we weren't that brave we decided on Shopko. So at 4:30 am we stood in line and were let in at 5. We darted all around the store. There were lots of people, but none of them seems to want what we were there for! YAY! We got the slip to pay for our TV and got our first Christmas Tree for $20! It was a good day. So we got home by 5:30 with our treasures and had our new TV set up by 6am! I am glad we went to Shopko because it wasn't nearly as bad as I've been in before. Justin however truly doesn't understand the madness and chaos that Black Friday usually involves. He still thinks taht we could have shown up to any store at 10 am and they would have had what we wanted...WRONG-O! Maybe I'll take him to Walmart on another Black Friday to really show him what it is like. Oh well, MERRY CHRISTMAS TO US!

New Job

WOW! Time has gone by so fast! Only 3 more weeks of school this semester!!! YAHOO!!!
Char has gotten a new job for the holiday season! I am now working at Bath and Body Works in the Newgate Mall. We needed a little extra cash and they were hiring and willing to work with my crazy school schedule! So I had orientation last night and will be starting in the next few weeks. Come on in and see me!!!
Justin has been told by 3 different departments that they want to hire him, but the company isn't hiring yet. They said they will be soon....but until then we just have to wait. He is getting sick of being a temp-and he now has 3 temps under him that he manages.
Life is going well otherwise. We are excited for the holidays to come. Justin's mom, sister and step-dad will be here this weekend. Heather (sister) got her her mission 3 weeks ago and is touring Arizona with her parents. They will stop here for a few days to play with us. I'm super excited to see them!!!

What a week!

I am so excited! This week I get to have my first day (days) off of school! Today was our mockboard day at school and I ROCKED IT!!! I am so happy today is over! And now I am done with school for the rest of the week!!! SLEEPING here I come!!!! I just wish we had the money for Justin to take off school and go on a little vacation!!! But alas, I'm going to be sleeping, cleaning, relaxing and organizing. LIFE IS SWEET!!!!

Weekend Getaway!

We went to Wyoming a few weekends ago with Mom, Dad, Ty and Dawn (Cami & Lloyd were in Cali). We went to Yellowstone-it was a blast! We got to the park and we saw a Buffalo and got SO excited!! As we drove farther into the park we saw more and more and then there were heards crossing the road right in front of our car! It was crazy cool! One of the times they were coming right at us and Ty was really kinda freaking out and wasn't sure what to do so he slowly reached over to roll up his window and sped off. The Bison was about 1 foot away from our car!!! It was sweet! We also saw a few bald eagles, Elk, Deer and lots of trees. It was a wonderful vacation. Justin LOVED it all-it was his first trip there. We took some hikes to see the hot pots. What an awesome getaway!