Surprise!

 Guess who's back??? I honestly had no clue it's been since October that i've blogged. Goes to show how actually horrendous my life has been these last two months. But we are surviving, go me. So let's play some catch up... it'll be mostly pictures so enjoy. 

Im randomly starting with mid-november because it was the only fun thing to really happen in the last two months. So being big BYU fan and all - and with them playing the bearcats in Cincinnati I decided to ask Seth if he would be interested in a little weekend trip. Well come to find out some of his mission buddies think just like me... so I think between me and his buddies bringing up the idea - he said yes. I already had a full weekend of work scheduled but let's just say I took some much needed mental health days off. So it was a very jam-packed, quick trip to Cindy, but so so much fun. 

a ton of Seths buddies were on our flight out of Vegas and another set of missionaries had heard they were coming out so they met us at the airport to say hi. This weekend was filled with missionaries haha. 

first stop after getting into cincy - Mac Shack. the one and only. Honestly I was pumped to try this place because of how often Seth at here during his mission. It was pretty dang good - I mean you can't go wrong with mac'n cheese, bbq meat and some hot Cheetos dusting. Oh plus I finally got to meet Jeff. We discovered Jeff and I are pretty much the same people ahah. Cool dude. We bought his dinner because he spent way too much on Seth over the last two years. 

Seth hounding his Mac

Meet Tim. He works at the local UDF (United Dairy Farmers). It's a little gas station/convenient store/ ice cream shop. He knows all the missionaries, but he was specifically asking where "wells" was. hah. I enjoyed meeting all the people Seth got to know out here. the ice cream wasnt too shabby here either I guess.

The boys and Tim

Our first night in cincy was a rainy one. We stayed at a Marriott just across the street from campus. Because it's an open campus and open field we decided to take a walk over to the football stadium and check out our seats. SOO there's a story behind that... there is a sister serving in Cincinnati currently whose dad works for BYU football. So she hooked Seth's mission president up with a ton of SUPER good seats. And pretty much he gave them to us and all the other old missionaries for FREE. We had no clue that our seats would be free or that they would literally be front freaking row. It was wild. It was cool to see the stadium all quiet the night before though. 

The next morning we set out for Hamilton. 

Our in-between breakfast and lunch meal - Skyline. Honestly not good, but Seth said it's usually better than what we had that day. Im not sure if I believe it, but probs won't go back there to try it again anyways. 

Now the real reason we drove to Hamilton - Gina! One of Seths friends who was baptized only about a week of two before we came out to visit. She may still be new to the church, but she has a strong testimony. It was really impressive listening to her experience and how much she trusts in the Lord. Seth was able to FaceTime in to her baptism and be one of the speakers. 

Yeah I know how this looks - like maybe all we did was eat in Cincinnati... It's definitely a big part of what we did ahah. This place was bomb. I don't even remember the name of it, but probably the best taco Ive ever had. Oh and Jeff drove out to Hamilton to eat with us. What a guy. 

I had to stop by graeters while back east. As a kid I never at the black raspberry chip, but dang this crap is good. 

Back to the hotel and getting ready for the game!! Seth finally took off his Cincinnati hoodie and changed it for a blue jacket. We had heard there was a BYU tailgate somewhere so we went out early looking for it...

We found it. A very mormon tailgate full of blue 84 Jerseys that they were handing out for free. 1984 is the last year BYU won the championship of something like that I think... anyways it was fun and all the cincy missionaries were volunteering there so Seth got to see literally everyone. 

elder wright - the companion that sent Sethy home

current and past missionaries - terrible lighting 

From left to right it goes son - father - grandpa

Now for the game - not much to say other than epic. Once in a lifetime for sure. I wouldn't spend money to sit front row again, because honestly you can't see much. you are really just looking up at the big screen unless the play is right in front of you. But the energy was wild and it was fun seeing all the action on the sidelines and being so close to the players. They are HUGE

I still think about how Erin is probably jaw-dropped in heaven looking down at me. She truly created a monster. And yes, I do enjoy watching byu, especially when they win. but there is obviously a lot more that goes into it. All my last memories with Erin were based around BYU football. It was such a big part of her life, so now I feel like it's something we can still share. Plus I still get to bond with her family over it. Frank texted me before the game: "Erin is with you tonight in Cincy. Have fun with the Cougs." I told him I don't think I'll ever cheer for the cougs and not think of Erin. It was a night to remember, but man it would've been even better to have her cheering right beside me. Anyways - still weird to think this all started last year and now I'm traveling to see them play. 

And for my favorite picture to ever exist - Chase is on the case. 

We won btw! Good freaking game and definitely a night to remember. 

Met up with the Rasmussen's. 

Hit up the Cane's across the street at 1230am. And guess what - we were up at like 3:45am to make our flight. Like I said - jam-packed, quick weekend trip. So worth it. Thanks sethy for coming with me on the trip - it might be the only trip he ever goes with me on, but that's ok good memories. 

Now for some random pictures over the last little bit - I had clinicals in st. George for a few weeks in November, which meant lunch with grandma. Always good to catch up on life. Jack even called while we were there so Grandma got to say Hi. 

Got my hair did.

What my thanksgiving looked like this year. Im working nights now so I worked the night before and the night of thanksgiving. I did make myself a little self-serve turkey with mashed potatoes and stuffing. Took that into work for a couple days. Oh and was able to watch the first volume of stranger things. Epic. 

Some very stressful happenings with school this term led me to finishing my clinicals up north with my old co-worker Caleb at Alpine Pediatrics. I was defeated for a few days trying to figure it all out, but it really did work out for the best. Im very grateful for Caleb and his willingness to help me out with my last bit of hours. I actually had a pretty fun time working with him in peds. there is a dutch bros in the same parking lot as his clinic so you know what that means... lots of "self-care" ahah. 

Working full time nights now - For the most part Im enjoying it quite a bit. I love not waking up early, I enjoy the quietness and free-time I have on shift now. I enjoy the people a lot more on night shift. My back also hasn't been spasming as much since night shift which is an obvious plus. 

The pretty mountains as I leave my clinical shifts. 

Madi and I saw the movie "Eternity" pretty good, pretty cute. Its nice living with Madi because we both keep to ourselves, but being roommates its easier to do spontaneous things like this. 

More stress. Im 26 years old and literally this past week Ive been having chest pain because Im so stressed and anxious about school. Long story short - my professor sucks. and I was failing for a few weeks there. currently not failing, but on the verge. so a little bit of peace has been restored, but we'll wait it'll next week when final grades are put in. 

Last day of clinicals calls for another chocolate milk. Over 540 hours of clinic done. That is really not a lot of hours, but considering it's on top of working yeah that's a lot. Yesterday I was thinking back to nursing school and how easy it was. In reality I don't think nursing school was necessarily "easy", but that's all I was doing at the time. I didn't have a job. All I did was school. This time around has been so challenging because of the need to balance work and school. and everything else too I guess. Anyways - I started my last assignment of my program today. Im about 5 pages into my 15 page paper and then (hopefully) Im home free! 

A little Texas Roadhouse dinner in early celebration of hopefully graduating haha. Madi left yesterday for Christmas vacay so it was wednesday night or never. SO there ya have it folks. that's a little catch up over the last few terrible weeks. I can't say they were all terrible, but also in the same breath Im so burnt out from school and writing papers that I just don't think I wanted anything to do with typing anymore than I had to so do you blame me?? But I should be back to my regular scheduled weekly blogging now. Only a couple more days of work then I get to go home for Christmas and I could not be more excited! bye for now!