We made it back to Springville safe and sound after 35 hours of driving. Lenny even survived the trip and jumped out of the car and headed for the fields as soon as we parked. The mice around here are probably wishing we stayed in New York. Ha. What a trip! The USA really is huge with lots of beauty in all the states. But let me tell you, you know you're in the Midwest when you can stand on a box and look over into the next state. So flat!
We've been super busy moving back into our house (that I missed so much!), unpacking, getting our classes all figured out etc. I've accepted an internship with the Utah County Health Department in Provo. I'm going to help create a new program that they will be using in their volunteer health clinic. The people that come to the clinic are uninsured and at or below the poverty level. Right now they are only recieving treatment with no prevention education or resources. So as far as I know the plan is to educate them on various topics and also connect them with medical personnel and other sources to help them be successful in preventing disesases, injuries, addictions etc. That's the brief run down I got the other day...we'll see how it goes. This semester Jared is doing his clinicals in the Intensive Care Unit in a hospital in SLC and also in a psychriatic ward. He says he's learning lots but is already looking forward for the semester to be over.
The other day I was eating lunch on campus and this older man was asking me questions about which classes I've enjoyed at BYU. After talking a little while he asked me if I was from New York! AHHHH! Did I pick up the accent? I really hope not. Just to clarify what they are really like (granted not everyone is like this but it's pretty true) I thought it would be funny to put this list up:
You know you're from New York City when:
* You think Central Park is "nature."
* You're paying $1,200 for a studio the size of a walk-in closet and you think it's a "steal."
* You pay more each month to park your car than most people in the U.S. pay in rent.
* You go to dinner at 9 and head out to the clubs when most Americans are heading to bed.
* You have 27 different menus next to your telephone.
* America west of the Hudson is still theoretical to you.
* You're suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you. (this one I found especially true)
* You take a taxi to get to your health club to exercise.
* Your idea of personal space is no one actually standing on your toes.
* $50 worth of groceries fit in one paper bag.
* You say "the city" and expect everyone to know that it means Manhattan.
* You secretly envy cabbies for their driving skills.
* You have never been to the Statue of Liberty or the Empire State Building.
* You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Columbus Circle to Battery Park at 3:30 on the Friday before a long weekend, but can't find Wisconsin on a map.
* The subway makes sense.
* The subway should never be called anything prissy, like the Metro.
* You ride in a subway car with no air conditioning just because there are seats available.
* You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multi-lingual. (they really are BIG into swearing, even little kids)
* You think $7.00 to cross a bridge is a fair price.
* Your door has more than three locks.
* Your favorite movie has DeNiro in it.
* The most frequently used part of your car is the horn.
* You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.
* You call an 8' x 10' plot of patchy grass a yard. You complain about having to mow it.
* You cross the street anywhere but the corners and yell at cars for not respecting your right to do so.
This is at the aquarium...look out Cash! Its a giant crab!
Happy Halloween! Cash was a race car driver and Kyler a football player-pads and all. I think between the two they ate 12 suckers in about an hour! They loved it, and I loved the chocolate they didn't want. hehe
Our pumpkins we carved.
Cash loves to gather the chicken eggs. He's such a good helper!
Darcy and Perry have a super nice, huge yard! My job was to push Cash up the hill in his truck and then he'd laugh all the ways back down. Sometimes he'd even go backwards.
This chunky monkey loves to eat! So darn cute!
Darcy on the coast.
The Oregon coast has so many neat rocks that have been slowly carved away be the waves. Darcy spoiled me and took me to lots of different beaches along the coast.
This is Cobblestone beach with the tide out. Instead of sand there are smoothly rounded lava rocks that clatter as the waves go over them- just like a horse-drawn carriage going over a cobblestone road. This is where we saw lots of seals and sea lions too. If you look closely there are some sitting on the large rock above.
My favorite thing was to explore all of the tide pools. It was like a treasure hunt. One protected beach had so many starfish! Too bad I couldn't keep one.
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We also made a trip to the Tillamook cheese factory. The cheese and ice cream there was so delicious. The boys wanted to play with the cows =)
I had a hard time leaving my fun nephews...I wanted to take them home with me! Thanks Darcy and Perry for showing me around!
