A pleasant surprise

So I showed up to work at 1:00 today, and there were already two pharmacists there. Apparently it's my day off, so I got to go home. I knew this was supposed to be my 3 day weekend (I have every Sunday off and every other Sat thru Mon off), but I won't get any 3 day weekends until September (I'll be working every Mon - Sat, 48 hours/week). I thought that was starting this week, but apparently it's not til next week. I don't know if that made sense, but I'm too lazy to explain further so just know that today was an unexpected day off. That means I have 8 hours of spare time that I didn't know I had, so I get to blog today after all.

So in today's blog:
- The weekend
- New church callings
- Work

So I actually had a pretty fun weekend. It started Friday morning before work (technically not the weekend yet, I guess) when I put my new golf discs to use for the first time. I'm still quite rusty (remember I haven't played since my mission), but even then I never got very good because it was only in one of my areas and we only played once a week, but it's fun getting into it again.
The highlight of my weekend was Saturday morning when Corri went yardsaling. I was still at home in bed when she called me and told me that this guy was selling all kinds of tools and stuff because he was moving. I hauled myself out of bed and drove down to check it out. It was actually quite a sale. I told Corri which things I wanted, and she haggled with the guy. I ended up getting a 16 ft ladder, a weed eater (which runs quite nicely), a role of string for the weed eater, 2-stroke engine oil, a round point shovel, square point shover, a pick axe (all with fiber glass handles), and a gas can all for $100.
Saturday night we went and saw Batman. I actually had nightmares that night, and again during my Sunday afternoon nap. I guess I'm still a kid in more ways than one.
On Sunday, Corri and I had to speak in church. We did an awesome job. Actually Corri did an awesome job, especially for not practicing at all. I never practice anyway, so mine came out mediocre as always. Our topic, of course, was Our Pioneer Heritage. We also got new church callings. This ward is much quicker at that stuff than our last ward was. Our last ward was mostly students, so with the high turnover, it was a while until we got asked to speak, and even then we only had to speak once when we moved in and once when we moved out. Anyway, Corri is the primary secretary. I am the assistant varsity coach. I was a little worried about scheduling conflicts with work, but my boss agreed to let me work the early shift every Wednesday so that I can make it to mutual.
Let's see, what else happened this weekend. Oh yes, I got a new phone, FINALLY. As you may recall from earlier posts, the phone I have been using is the same one Corri and I got when we were first married. I now feel very fancy with my flip phone, and I no longer have to be embarrassed when people see my phone. It even has a camera, which I thought was getting a bit too fancy, but I don't know how to use it anyway. The best part about the phone is that I was able to get the U of A's fight song (Bear Down Arizona) as my ringtone. That was actually my main reason for getting the phone. My old phone couldn't do that. If it could, I probably would kept it for a few more years.
So my new job is going well so far. On Tuesday I got to go on a bit of a road trip to a different store for an appointment that I had with a patient (called Medication Therapy Management). Medicare Part D plans, as well as some other insurance companies, pay to have a pharmacist conduct an MTM appointment with patients that meet certain criteria (certain number of meds, certain health conditions, certain amount of health care costs, etc.) Anyway, I get to sit down with the patient for about an hour and go over all of their medications and health conditions. I then make recommendations to the patient and to the doctor to change, add, or discontinue different medications. This may sound boring to you, but it's actually pretty fun. We also have flu shot season coming up, so soon I'll be doing immunizations for the first time. In school we had to shoot each other with saline injections, but I've never done the real deal on a real patient.
Well, if you would like me to shoot you, go ahead and e-mail me (or leave a comment). You're reading the Nathan and Corri Story.

Nathan's Toy

We decided that we don't have enough debt yet, with the new house and the student loans, so we went out and obtained some more debt.

In all seriousness, we didn't just go spend-crazy now that Nate is done with school and making pharmacist salary. Many of you might remember that Nathan was in a bad car accident in February (or March?) of this year and our other car was totaled.

His seat was broken on impact and he was sent flying backward.

These were his glasses after the accident...he's not sure exactly how this happened but thinks that it may have been from the air bag. He was lucky to walk away with some minor bruises and scratches.

Anyway, we tried to last as long as we could with only one vehicle, but planned on buying a second vehicle after we purchased the home.

We also decided that we wanted a truck for several reasons. First, Nate has wanted a truck for close to forever. Second, we like the convenience of being able to haul things (especially with the new house...we've had to get a lawnmower, pool vac, etc. and will need to buy lumber and other things for some projects we have planned). Third, we both like camping and a truck will make that more convenient.

Once we decided a truck was the way to go we got more specific on the details of it. We wanted something smaller to try to get better gas mileage. We wanted something that would hold a carseat for obvious reasons and we wanted a camper shell if at all possible. Nathan did some research on Consumer Reports and found that one of their top ranked small trucks was the 2003 Nissan Frontier. So we just started looking and once we found one that met all our criteria (4 door, crew cab, camper shell) we snatched it up. And I have to say, I am quite the haggler. We talked the guy down pretty good and feel like we got a fair deal. Anyway, it's been fun and Nate is just in love with it...I'm starting to feel a bit jealous, actually. :D

The Adventures of Homeownership OR The Crazy Pregnant Lady (you choose which title you think fits)

Prepare yourself, this one's a doozie.

So I am definitely very glad to finally be in our home and unpacking, etc. but for those of you who still have the joys of renting, don't be fooled. Being a homeowner is definitely an adventure. And due to the fact that this home was bank-owned, we didn't have a whole lot of information about it when we moved in. We knew that there would be projects and some things that needed fixing up, but I still wasn't prepared for the adventures.

Take last week, for example. I was in the front room unpacking some boxes and I started to feel pretty warm. I realized that Nathan had closed the A/C vent over my head the night before to keep the bedroom a little cooler while we slept. I couldn't reach it to open it up and being my big fat pregnant self didn't want to haul a chair in and pull myself up on it to open it. But there is a little lever that hangs down from the vent that just needed to be pushed forward slightly to do the trick. Since I had just opened up a box of kitchen stuff, I decided I would use a frying pan to reach up and push the lever forward.

I had to turn off the ceiling fan and wait for it to stop spinning first because the vent is placed underneath it. It stopped so I reached up with the frying pan but as soon as I barely touched the vent with the pan I heard a loud POP! and sparks flew EVERYWHERE. And not just little sparks, massive ones that made me think my carpet was sure to start fire. I was so confused! All I did was barely touch the thing!

I immediately called Nate at work and told him about it, and he was just as surprised as I was and unsure of what could've caused the problem. So then I decided to call my mom and dad, my dad being somewhat of an electrician. As I was on the phone with my parents, the A/C kicked on and I happened to be standing underneath a vent in another room that was open. I wasn't sure, but I thought I could smell smoke coming from the A/C vent. I told my parents, "I think I smell smoke, I gotta go!"

I walked from room to room sniffing underneath the vents to see if I could smell any smoke when the phone rang. I answered it and it was my mom who (bless her heart) had the fire department on the other line. She lives out of town and was worried about me and convinced me that it was a good idea to have someone come and check my attic to make sure it wasn't on fire. I told the guy the whole little story and he said they would be there in a few minutes. I just kept thinking, "Please, PLEASE don't come blaring your sirens...then all my brand new neighbors will be over here gawking and asking what is wrong. How can I explain that I was opening an A/C vent with a frying pan without looking like a crazy woman?"

The fire department showed up a few minutes later, thankfully very quietly and came into the house. There were four men and you can imagine the looks on their faces as I tried to explain what had happened. I even showed them the frying pan because it had a few holes in it where the sparks had hit. They all just looked at me, gawked at me rather, and one of them said, "Ma'am, that's what happens when you bang metal together hard enough...it creates sparks."

Um....excuse me? I'm sorry, do I have IDIOT written across my forehead??? They seriously thought that I was BANGING the frying pan as hard as I could on the A/C vent, hard enough to create massive sparks that burn HOLES IN FRYING PANS!!! What!?! I tried to convince them that I had not been banging the frying pan on the vent, but simply touched the pan to the vent when it all had happened, but they obviously didn't believe me. That is until one of them checked my breaker box and found that two of the switched had been tripped. He came in the room and told the others that it was, in fact, an electrical problem and not a crazy pregnant lady problem. Ok, he didn't actually say that, but I could see it in his eyes.

Anyway, they checked the attic and everything was ok but they did tell me that I did the right thing in calling them because there is some sort of electrical problem and it should be fixed before I turned my electricity back on...that's right, they turned it off, in the middle of the day during 115 degree weather. Nathan (the sweetheart) came home early to be with me and melt with me to help get the problem taken care of.

After several HOURS of phone calls and dying of heat (I won't go into why it took so long because that would make this post even longer!)I finally spoke with an electrician on the phone. It was too late in the afternoon to get an electrician to come and look at it that day but he said he would send someone the next day. Thankfully he gave me the okey to turn my electricity back on in most of the house, but said I should leave those rooms turned off that had been tripped.

To make a long story short (ha ha...too late) the electrician came the next day and found that the genius who lived here before us wired the ceiling fans on his own. This is fine if you have a clue as to what you are doing but he obviously did not. This guy actually wired the ground and the hot together. Now I am no electrician, but even I know that the purpose of the ground is to keep people from getting electrocuted, and if you wire that together with something that has an electrical current going through it, you defeat the purpose altogether. Because of this, the A/C vent had become the ground for the fan. The electrician explained that when I used the frying pan I accidently bumped the fan and the vent at the same time, completing the circuit between them. He also told me that if someone had touched the two at the same time with their bare hands they would've been killed. KILLED PEOPLE! I can't believe this guy...he could've killed me or Nathan so easily, all because he was too cheap to hire someone to do something that he had no idea how to do correctly on his own.

Anyway, I am sorry this post is so incredibly long. If you actually read this entire thing you are a true friend. :D

3-D Ultrasound

This will be another quickie because Nathan gave the whole update yesterday...you can read that one if you want to know what's new. We had our 3-D Ultrasound today. We only got two pictures because the baby was sleeping and did NOT want to cooperate. I was kinda disappointed just because I have been looking forward to this for so long, but oh well. The first one is of his cute little foot and the second one is of half of his face. I can't wait to meet the little guy!

Hello everyone! I'm back. Sorry for the extended break there - I know you've all been dying for me to post again. Things were a little crazy there with the exams and moving into the house. In today's posting:

- Joke of the day
- Baby status
- My new job title
- New house

The joke of the day will only be more funny to those of you who have known me for a long time, which is actually not many of you considering the fact that I hi-jacked this blog from my wife (it was the only way I could post and actually have people read it. Let's be honest, how many of you would be reading this right now if it were on my very own personal blog.) But for those of you who don't know me very well, this will be a chance for you to get to know me. I used to play the cello growing up, and this video clip speaks to me on many different levels. Take a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

I don't have much to report in the baby department. We have an appointment tomorrow to sit down with the doctor and talk about the different pain med options during labor, so that should be interesting. We will also be getting the 3-d ultra sound tomorrow, so you'll be seeing some of those pics soon, which Corri will be posting because I have no idea how to do it.

As I said before, part of the reason I didn't post was that I had my exams last week to become a real pharmacist. I did pass both exams, and today was my first day of working as a licensed pharmacist. I did an awesome job. I was actually doing basically the same thing I've been doing for quite some time now, the only difference was that today, no one had to check my work, which made me feel a little uneasy, but I suppose I'll get used to that soon enough. I was definately working at snail pace today. Maybe by the end of the week I'll be up to tortoise pace.

We FINALLY got into our house - woohoo! So now we're learning all about pool maintenance. We're down at the pool store practically every day asking those guys what we're supposed to do now, but it's fun. We also have several home projects to do, which I will give you more info about as I do each of them.
I think the most exciting part of the whole home buying process was wiring money. I've never done that before. We had to do it that way because the bank we bought it from is in Pensylvania. The lady at the bank must have thought something was up the way I said "I need to wire some funds" with a half smirk on my face. I couldn't help it. Too bad I can't wire money more often.

Well, if you would like me to wire you some money, go ahead and e-mail me your bank account information, social security number, date of birth, and credit card information. You're reading the Nathan and Corri Story. I'll be back before you can say identity theft.

In My Wildest Dreams...

So when I started this blog, I thought my technologically challenged husband (which in this case means a person who CHOOSES not to keep up with the technological world as some sort of rebellion against "the man") would make fun of it, like he does every other form of Internet communication I have. But it has actually been quite the opposite. Since I haven't had much access to a computer, I haven't blogged that much, and every time I get on here to post he has beat me to the punch! So here I am with nothing to blog about because Nathan already told you all about our doctor's appointment and the house. OH! Except he did NOT tell you that we actually get to officially sign the papers TODAY!!! (Ha ha, Nate, you don't get to tell everything...now who's stickin' it to the man?! Just kidding.)

Well, the reason for the title is due to the fact that as of late my dreams have been pretty crazy. I heard that pregnant women start to have really vivid dreams in their third trimester, but I just assumed that meant dreams about the baby. Yes, I do have dreams about the baby...what he will look like, etc...but mostly I have crazy vivid dreams about other things. For example, the other night I dreamt that I was walking down the street when a large black dog came running up, barking and snarling and nipping at my feet. I was terrified and thought to myself, I have got to give this dog one swift kick in the jaw and he will leave me alone.

I swung my leg back as far as I could in preparation for the forceful blow I was about to deliver to the four-legged monster and POW!!! I woke up instantly to realize I had just kicked my husband in the shin...pretty hard. My first instinct was to laugh, because, c'mon...it's pretty funny. But then I quickly leaned over to see if he was okay and the big lug didn't even wake up! That was even funnier and made me wonder, what else can I get away with while he is sleeping? Just something to think about ladies...if your husband has some facial hair you don't like, possibly some stray eyebrow hairs that need plucking, see how heavy a sleeper he is. That might be the perfect time!