Hyrum James Felt

Part of the reason I chose Portland for the summer is to be here with the Felts while they welcome their new little man into the world...their first boy, Hyrum James Felt was born on Thursday, May 29th in the afternoon. While I missed the actual delivery by 2 minutes (literally), I was there to see him while he was brand new, and also was able to give him his first bath! He's a sweet boy!

Moving to Portland

One-way flight from Portland to Salt Lake City ... $201.40
Speeding ticket in Idaho ... $140.00
Near-miss seat-belt ticket ... $0.00 (almost $97!)
Injuries from walking on the beach in bare feet ... $14.44
Having a friend who not only paid for all of that to help ME move to Portland for the summer, but then thanked me for inviting her at the end of it ... PRICELESS!!!


Yes, I have officially moved to Portland, OR for the summer as a travel nurse. I moved here the weekend of May 23-26th, and Heather helped me drive up here, unpack, and explore for the weekend. As you can tell, we had some great experiences! I mean, really...do you know ANYONE who has gotten a ticket in IDAHO??!! She keeps reminding me that it happened shortly after I had told told her she could safely go 90 mph through Idaho...they never stop you for speeding there! She happened to be driving my car, which I am personally thankful for because it didn't matter who had been driving at the time, we would have been pulled over and ticketed. Mine probably would have been worse...and I'm a lot closer to losing my license over speeding tickets than she is! That's only her 2nd one in her entire life!!! For me, that wouldn't even be my 2nd ticket since January (it would have been my 3rd)!!! I was blessed. :-)

On Sunday, we went out to visit my friends, the Felts (see last August posts) who live in Long Beach, Washington. Two funny things happened there... (at least two that I'm willing to share!)...

While we were doing a driving tour on the Peninsula with Tiffany, we got tagged by a police officer who was looking into cars and ticketing those who weren't wearing their seatbelt. Again, apparently Heather always forgets to wear her seatbelt when she is riding in the back seat...not anymore...now she always wears it! The only reason he didn't ticket her was because he was close personal friends with Brian and Tiffany and she was in the car with us! Lucky!!!

Funny story about the foot injuries from walking on the beach... Heather and I went for a walk on the beach, carrying our shoes so we could walk barefoot through the sand and water. We got talking and weren't paying attention to how far we had walked, and when we finally turned around and walked back, it was well over a mile. Anyways, things seemed fine...no problems till later. Heather mentioned at one point that her foot was hurting a little. The next day I noticed she was limping on it, so I said something and she finally admitted just how painful it had gotten. I immediately took her to the store and we bought things to help it. So we were at the check-out stand at Target and the cashier asked us how we were doing, and we both answered "Fine" and "Great". The couple behind us started LAUGHING and said, "You are buying 2 ace bandages, ice packs, and pain killers (Ibuprofen and Tylenol)...and you're FINE?!" Then we all started laughing! I drugged her up and dressed up her foot and put her on a plane back home to SLC... and I definitely realize how blessed I am to have a friend who is there with me through it all, even when it comes at great personal (and financial) sacrifice!!! Again, I am VERY BLESSED!!!

Pictures from Peru

Okay, I'm too lazy to actually upload all of these pictures again, so I'm going to try and post the links to view these pictures from my Facebook page...we'll see if it works. Let me know what you think! Apparently I'm technologically challenged tonight and am unable to upload the 4th link...so I'll do that later. Keep watching!

YAY!! I finally made it work!

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33761&l=1fa84&id=775107563
www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33763&l=30be9&id=775107563
www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33844&l=3e54c&id=775107563
www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33848&l=bc6f0&id=775107563

A Weekend in Vegas!

Things are changing once again in my life...I had put my notice in at work so I could accept a Travel Nurse position in an ER in Portland, OR for the summer. Last-minute I decided to leave the house and go visit my sister and nieces and my friend David in Vegas for the weekend. Heather had never been to Vegas and agreed to go with me so we were off!

Heather and me...


The drive seemed like nothing, even though I'd worked the night before (of course Heather drove so she might say something different!), and we got in early enough to see a few things in town and go out to dinner that night with David, Brenda and one of my nieces, Makenzi.

My cute niece Makenzi during dinner...


Heather and me again...




Then we toured on the Strip a little before we finally called it a night. It is so fun to see it sometimes...all the lights and action in the city that never sleeps! As we toured, we met some very interesting people who decided that they wanted to be in some of the pictures with us. I laughed so hard after we got home when I finally looked at these pictures they took on my camera!

The light show at the Bellagio was impressive that night!


David, Heather, Me and some random stranger...


Again...random strangers! but funny...


Sunday afternoon we took the kids to the park and played with them, and also visited. It was 104 degrees!!! In MAY!!! The drinks and ice cream we bought were fabulous!

David...


Makaela & Makenzi...


Heather & Makaela...




Makaela & me...


Sharing ice cream...


Brain freeze!


My adorable sis Brenda & me!


The girls...Makenzi & Makaela


Monday got up to 107 degrees when we finally left town in the early afternoon. We had packed as much as we could into those 2-1/2 days down there! And once again, we had a great time!!!

Painting 101... part 2

The next night, we once again found ourselves in the same Home Depot. We walked around the corner and found the same guy working again! We were now looking for the Original Kilz (oil-based primer) and also some sanding supplies, masks, etc. Of course he laughed at us this time!

So that night, we sanded... which was fun of course. I opted to not sand too long, figuring the paint would "even it out".

A few nights later, I prepped the walls by actually washing them (for real this time, though what's the point now?) and we dusted the room. Luckily the ceiling had escaped the horrible fate that the walls didn't so we didn't have to re-do that part!

I haven't ever painted with oil-based paint before, so I read the directions this time...all of them! A few minutes in, we realized that we needed some serious ventilation, so I opened the window in the room about 6-8 inches and also the bathroom window across the hall about the same, for cross-ventilation. I had taken the door off the hinges so we couldn't just close it to contain the smell! And it DID smell! We got so high that night on paint fumes as we painted away...laughing at EVERYTHING and more! I had paint in my hair in the first five minutes that night (which doesn't wash out like water-based...it took a week!), and I also got it on the carpet, though I don't know how since the whole thing was covered with tarp!

Mary got home about an hour later with her 18-yr old son, Ian, and said the whole house smelled...and she could hear us upstairs laughing our heads off while we painted! We laugh at a lot of things when we are doing these projects around the house anyways, but this night we couldn't stop laughing at the stupidest things!

We finished up and cleaned up our mess, being very conscientious with it...I didn't want paint all over the house after all! I took my gloves off so I could open doors for Heather as she carried our trash. We went straight out to the garbage bin and dumped it. As we headed back in, we found the screen door wouldn't open. I thought it was just Heather being dumb, so I tried it too and sure enough...we were locked out! Again...laughing through the entire experience, we tried to get Mary's attention to come let us in. Heather stood at the door calling "Mary come let us in!" and I rang the bell several times...still laughing. It freaked Mary out as she didn't know we'd gone out there and wasn't sure who was at the back door at that time of night (near midnight)! She just shook her head when she saw it was us...

I should say at this point that she has forbidden me to do any more home-improvement projects after 10 p.m.!

Painting 101... part 1

This is where my home improvement projects got interesting...and Heather was there for all of it!

It started the night we were in Home Depot together shopping for the Kilz2 to prime the walls with. I had decided that just one of the upstairs bedrooms needed to be painted, in part because of the color, but also to get rid of the cigarette smell. Everyone said to try the Kilz products because they do a marvelous job covering up the smell, and you can paint anything on top of them. I opted to start with the Kilz2 since it was water based and would be easier to clean up. The worker at Home Depot who was helping us made an innocent joke about Heather being my daughter...which we laughed at later but I was so not amused with at the time. Yes, I know I'm getting older but come on!!! Do I really look that much older than her? (Don't answer that)... Anyways, back to the story. We bought our supplies and headed to my home.

The room...





We prepped the room by laying down tape and tarps, taking off all the doors, blinds and other outlet things, etc. I even dusted the walls in preparation. Just as I was pouring the stuff into the pan, I decided to read the directions. It went something like this: "Prep the walls by ... blah blah blah..., paint evenly onto the walls ...blah blah blah, clean up with ... blah blah blah..." That's exactly how I read it too...I mean, come on...I've painted before! I know what I'm doing.





I primed with the roller while she used the brush for the edges...we had a great time as we talked and laughed about things. About 2 hours into it we were just finishing when Heather asked "What's that bubble on the wall?". We both looked and noticed that it wasn't just one...the walls actually had bubbles coming out on them! It was then that Heather asked me what all the "blah blah blah's" were in the instructions, and I read them again. It was something about preparing the walls by washing them with something special before priming them...but who actually DOES that? I mean, that's what the primer is for right? It just "covers it all up and seals it in" like everyone told me right? I made the decision as the new home-owner that we should pop them, peel off the loose paint and sand them down later after it had dried. I couldn't after all leave bubbles on my wall could I?!

So now we're peeling... Yes, this is Heather...







And peeling...and laughing...





And having a peeling contest...we hung our biggest whole pieces on the window!

Home Improvement 101...

OR Why I should not be allowed to do this...

Let me start by saying that 2300 square feet sounded fun until I started cleaning and working on it. What was I thinking?! In an effort to get the light smell of cigarette smoke out, I took about 7-10 days before moving all of my belongings in, set up a bed in the dining room and lived there while shampooing the carpets, washing some walls, scrubbing out the kitchen and bathrooms, and overall cleaning. I was blessed with the help of a couple of very good friends...Mary, who is going to be my roommate and actually live there (she has an interest in making things good), and Heather, who is just plain crazy, but so fun to do home improvement projects with! Here are a couple of the more interesting experiences...

Heather and I found some odor spray while shopping at Walmart at 12:30 a.m., so we decided to try it that night on the ceiling of the basement, where the worst of the smell was. We took turns spraying it straight up while trying to not get it on us or breath too much of it in, as it did burn the lungs a little, and it wasn't recommended for human consumption. That was fairly entertaining as we were spraying it at nearly 2:00 in the morning! Surprisingly it actually worked!

We also decided to change out the doorknobs and locks one day, as I have a crazy neighbor that has tried to just walk in before. That took a couple of hours...I know, we did try to follow the directions eventually when all else failed!

Here are a few pics...I will save the painting stories for another post!

Mary mopping in the dining room


Me cleaning the fridge...I know...nice shot.


Me cleaning the kitchen


More kitchen cleaning

Buying a Condo...

Yes, it's true. I've done it. I've finally bought a condo, and attached my name to a more permanent address than a PO Box (though I'm keeping that too for now!). After several negotiations, and a few fixes, I found a place, signed paperwork, and got it to close in about 6 weeks! I got the keys on April 30th, and my life hasn't slowed down since! I found a place in Utah that will be big enough to keep a room but also have a roommate or two to help take care of it while I'm traveling, etc. It is 2 stories plus a basement, and is 2300 square feet, give or take a few. I love the size, space and everything about it!