I Can Adult

So! It has yet again been a huge chunk of time since I last blogged (I  blame school!)

Just real quick I'm going to cap up all the things I've done since January so bear with me... I hope to make this blog a bit more regular with fun posts about my new hobby (See an upcoming post to find out what the hobby is!!)

So I finished out my last semester of my undergraduate! I worked full time at my job with the troubled youth and continued on at my internship as a medical social worker at McKay-Dee Hospital. I switched floors though and had a much more interesting time there and truly learned a lot.  I worked on the Surgery floor and got to see a much wider variety of things.  I worked with patients who were in car accidents, gang stabbings, as well as people having their appendix removed. It offered a lot more variety and a lot more ways I could help.  I got really good at talking to drug addicts/alcoholics during this time period as well as really helping people more than the usual walker.

Something else I really loved about the second half of my semester was the opportunity I got to sit in on a support group for cancer victims.  This was a really amazing experience as a future social worker to see how a group really works with all it's dynamics. It was also really great to get to see strangers come together to support each other--I was able to witness some pretty touching moments which seriously tested my ability to not cry and seem professional. All in all a pretty great experience! AND.....

I graduated!! It was (and still is) a kind of surreal experience to think that I've earned a degree and will not be attending school this fall. It hasn't sunk in yet and to be honest a big part of me is kind of scared to get out there and be a real adult.  Being a student is a lot less scary than being an adult because now people are going to assume I've got my act together and that I'm "responsible"... whatever that means!! I really am glad to have graduated and look forward to when I'll head back to get my Master's Degree in Social Work. In this same vein I took my licensing exam, PASSED, and recieved my official Social Work license! That's right--I can now officially call myself a social worker! Still seems weird... still tell people when I meet them that I'm going into social work and have to correct myself to say that I actually am a social worker.

I didn't really do much beside school and internship besides go on adventures with Brooks spend time with my family:

Grandpa... what fun!

We found Buffalo!

Emmaline & Lydia 

https://goo.gl/photos/wzQskWMZcURBhUZN6

I'll go ahead a have a completely different post for my trip! 

Goodbye 2014!

I really need to be a bit better at updating this, but at least it's happening--right?! Since I last posted in August of 2014, we are now in a new year (barely) and I figured I'd post something so you guys don't think I've died or something.

So today is a new year and I spent a lot of time reminiscing on what happened 'last year'.  Since August I of course started school again. It was a pretty easy semester overall but I really struggled getting up for my classes in time (as always) and my 9:00 class which would normally be something really risky for me to take because of how early it is in the morning (don't judge) was nothing compared to my 7:30am class...yup... Don't know how I did it people, but I did!! I got pretty decent grades and really enjoyed my classes--I took 3 this semester. School Social Work: I loved it, definitely something I'd be interested in; Social Work Policy: essentially a debate class, it was pretty fun; and my Practicum class.

First day at McKay-Dee

My Practicum class was something pretty different this year from most classes I've taken. It was a class/internship. My internship was at McKay-Dee Hospital and to be honest it wasn't really everything I was hoping it would be. I worked on the Joint and Spine floor and I had a really amazing supervisor who I got along with really well. I picked up on what to do pretty quickly and do a pretty good job there but it's just not something I want to do for the rest of my life or something that would make my life fill fulfilled--to be truthful I feel much more fulfilled at my job where I get paid not very well (more on that later). My supervisor applied for a new job at a school and got it--I'm so very happy for her because it's something she's wanted for awhile but it now leaves me without my awesome supervisor and I'm currently still in the lurch for where I'm going to end up next semester, so fingers crossed that it all works out for me.



The best part about school this semester was that it was basically my last semester of school!! Next semester I will have my practicum class which only meets once every other week (regrettably at 7:30am!) but I already have the syllabus and it has about 3 assignments and no tests. I will go to maybe 7 class times.  It's kind of strange to be finally finishing up school--I've been doing it for so long (19 years) with no breaks so it's hard to imagine life without it.  While I'm finishing school for right now, I don't plan to finish for good; I plan to go back to school within 2 years or so for a Masters Degree in Social Work but I definitely need a break from school for awhile (again, 19 years).

I'm still working at the boys home Youthtrack and I really enjoy my time there--for the most part. I spent Halloween, Christmas and New Years Eve with the boys and was happy to be able to make the holidays a bit better for them.  I'm not worried about not liking my internship because I really enjoy my job here and it reaffirms that I really do want to be a social worker. I've developed a lot of great relationships with the boys there and my co-workers and will a little sad to leave when I have my degree--but will definitely appreciate a better paycheck and the ability to help out on a bigger scale as an official social worker.

Quick follow up on my neices and nephews: I finally got to meet Emmaline for her baby shower but I completely spaced taking pictures with her!! It is one of my biggest regrets as she and her family have now moved to New Mexico and I missed out on all the aunt cuddle time!


Lydia Belle was born on October 31--Halloween and a week late just as her mommy planned (Poor Lydia, her mom was micromanaging her before she was even born *wink*) I got to spend a lot of time with Lydia as Megan--her mom was staying with my parents and I spent at least a night a week there for my internship.  She is just the cutest! My internship is going to be a bit harder this next semester without Megan and Lydia to hang out with afterwards as they are heading back to Grenada with Bryant at medical school there.

Lydia and I cuddling after a long day at McKay

My hand bandage made me feel like Cyndi Lauper

I hurt myself a bit this year... up until this year one of my coolest facts was that I had only ever had one stitch, it was in my lip and I pulled it out when I was a toddler. This year destroyed that fun fact as I had stitches for my mole removal, then just did a lot of stupid things. First stupid thing was the first day of school I was all excited about getting off on the right foot and having breakfast with Brooks before school and cut my hand instead of a bagel... just dumb. In Novemeber I outdid myself by slicing BETWEEN my toes by stepping on my bedframe. Can't really explain how I managed that--but don't worry I did. When asked at the E.R. if I had been drinking I answered "Nope, I'm this stupid sober!" The nurse took a couple minutes trying to figure out how to even go about stitching between someone's toes and that was pretty painful for me. The worst of it was trying to explain to everyone how I had managed to slice between my toes I wasn't entirely sure myself.


Brooks and I hit our 3 year dating anniversary on December 23. It's crazy to think that we've been dating for so long! It's crazy to look back on how much our relationship has grown and changed since we first started dating and to emphasize that we redid our first date to Temple Square, and celebrated Festivus as we did 3 years ago on our anniversary.  We've done a lot of fun things together since the summer including: visiting Tony's Grove, throwing rocks at a moose (Brooks--not me, first time seeing a moose and thought I was joking when I warned him that they charge, thank goodness it didn't), changing 6 tires (don't ask), dressing up for Halloween, going to see the lights at Temple Square, wrestling (Festivus), and just general fun and happiness. It's been a good 3 years, can't wait for what the next year brings for two adventurers like us!

Working out in style!

AND the biggest achievement of the last few months: I'm actually cooking and sort of working out now! So that's awesome!! Looking forward to another year and all the changes that will be coming!!

 Photo Dump:

Cut my hand

The moose

Tony's Grove

Brooks at Tony's Grove

I get crafty with some Pumpkins!

Harry Potter day at work with the boys

Keagan and I--he's a goof!

Max and I--when he decides it's okay for me to hold him

At the E.R. for my foot

Brooks and I were able to go to a Voice Male concert with the boys
I sort of successfully curled my own hair!!

My dad got a helicopter and my brother got it
horribly tangled in my hair

School's Out: Revenge of the Babies

SO! It's been awhile! School is pretty much officially over for me! I've finished all my assignments and everything, there's just one test that I'm taking that's unrelated to any of my courses that I need to pass if I want to go on to a Master's Degree. (I can retake it once a month if I need to but that'll get pretty pricey so I'd like to pass it my first try to keep options open) That's not until Thursday though, so I still have plenty of time to study for that. It's such a great feeling to be done with school this semester, it's felt like I've been dragging my feet through sand uphill. Yeah... It's been a rough semester filled with pretty much zero motivation for school but I think I scrapped through alright and look forward to the next semester and the opportunity to take some classes that I'm actually interested in again!

Brooks and I at Bear Lake

Speaking of next semester, I finally got my practicum placement! For those of you who do not know, a practicum is essentially a class I have to take that has an unpaid internship that I must participate in as well. I got my first choice as a medical social worker at McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden working in the Joint and Spine unit! That should be a great experience and I'm really looking forward to it. Plus: my mother works at McKay Dee so I'm looking forward to having lunch with her and hanging out with all the sick peoples! I'll be working there about 16 hours a week on Tuesday and Wednesday so for those of my friends still in Layton that means I'll be at my parent's house every Tuesday night so we should hang out for sure!

Something else that is new with my life is that everyone in my family is having babies this year!! Like literally every single one of my siblings are either expecting by the end of the year or have already delivered, it's the year for babies and I'm kind of left out... I'm thinking about making Brooks buy me a baby hedgehog so I'm not left out. He promised me once that if I caught a fish with my hands and he has yet to follow through... plus, just look at how CUTE!!!

 

I mean I need this right?! 

But in all seriousness:

Trevor & Brynn gave birth to little baby Max Gotberg on February 10th. He has gotten so big and I got to see him today for his baby blessing, he's a cute little boy!

Jessica and Mike gave birth to BIG baby Parker Tiberius (Yes, really) Stagg


On the way to see baby Parker, Aunt Nikki's car broke down and would not go faster than 20mph on the freeway. It's officially dead and gone now which is a bummer for sure.... I guess that's just the price you have to pay for adorable nephews. Speaking of nephews, Parker's older brother Keagan is not very thrilled currently about the new addition.

Keagan's not too sure about Parker yet

When asked if he wants to give Parker a kiss Keagan says NO! He's not a fan of having to share his mommy and daddy.  My mother tried bribing Keagan with pop to get him to like Parker more. She gives him some pop and says "Parker told me that you could have pop, Keagan! Isn't that nice of Parker? Say thank you, Parker!" and Keagan says "Dank oou Pawkew."

Brook and Jake have announced that they are expecting a baby girl on July 24th! This baby gets blessed to have 2 of the most adorable older sisters!! Girl power! It'll be fun to have a new baby neice after 2 new nephews.



AND! Megan and Bryant recently announced that they are expecting!  This is really great news as some of you may have known they have struggled with fertility issues which makes this baby an extra little miracle (to read more about Megan's super empowering story you should read her blog at http://bryantandmegan.blogspot.com/2014/04/two-very-different-announcements.html. They are due on October 25th and I get the privilege of getting to spoil this baby rotten because I will be seeing him at least once a week when he's born because Megan is coming back to the USA (YAY!) and living with my parents (DOUBLE YAY!) so when I'm home for my practicum dates I get to see Megan and new baby.  I'm really looking forward to Megan being back in a very selfish way because I've missed her a lot since she left to the Caribbean last year so Bryant could go to medical school and I'm happy to have her so close again without the distractions of having a husband (no offense Bryant). She'll be coming back in the end of May. The only thing I'm not too excited about is to be standing next to her in all her tanned glory while I'm still ridiculously pale.

I mean look at that tan... no one can compete with that!!

Yay for babies!! Something else that is going on this summer is Brooks has auditioned for and made it in the Grassroots Shakespeare Company!! It's very exciting for him to get back into the acting saddle. Grassroots Shakespeare Company is really unique: they don't have a director, a costumer, or light designer. The actors themselves collaborate together to put the show together. This is the way that it was done back in Shakespeare's time. They have limited rehearsal time and then they will begin touring around Utah performing outside at parks and Renaissance festivals. All the shows are FREE but the suggest you donate $3 so it's really not that big of a monetary commitment if you'd like to go see him. He's the leading man in As You Like It he has the part of Orlando.  He also has the parts of Westmoreland & Pistol in Henry V. I'd recommend seeing As You Like It if you have the choice. You can see the dates for upcoming performances here: http://www.grassrootsshakespeare.com/summer-tour.html to see if there's anything playing near you. They don't have all the performances up yet so keep checking back. Here's a sneak peek of what they're up to, I'll post more videos as time goes on!

My phone did this automatically... I think it's funny.

Now for some random pictures of what I've been up to:

Brooks at Bear Lake on the prettiest day in the whole universe!! It was gorgeous!!

Keagan and Ginger at the park, I'm not sure who liked going down the slides more!

Courtney Dixie and I at my girl's night over Spring Break

Girl's Night with my roommates and a friend

A New Day Has Come

     It's day 2 of the zombie apocalypse. Much has happened since I last wrote.  I was trying to escape from the human Head Quarters and I was surrounded by 20 zombies who all brutally attacked me! I barely escaped with my life. Wounded I limped back to the safety of my car and made my get away.  The virus started affecting me almost immediately--if I did not act fast I would soon become a zombie for good. Around the time I felt myself craving a rare McDonald's hamburger I knew my humanity was almost gone.

     News has been spreading about some doctors who have been working on an antidote to the virus, it's not perfected but news was that they were looking for someone to test it on before they started mass producing it. I hurriedly made my way to the hospital hoping that they could help me before it was too late. I got into the facility and suddenly starting feeling very hungry and aware of the weakness of the all humans around me.  Idiotic humans!! They didn't even know their lives were in danger!! I lunged for the nearest one and the last thing I heard was a shot ring out and that's the last thing I remember about yesterday.

     This morning I woke up in my bed at home.  I knew at once that the antidote had worked!! Thus my second life begun.  I vowed that I would do everything in my power to make it through the day alive.   A new day has come.

     On my way to my first class, while jumping through bushes I was able to kill an unsuspecting zombie from behind; some may say that was low but I can assure you that zombie would have given no thought to doing the same.  Nothing of report happened until my last class.

    The moment I stepped through the doorway I saw her.  She was sitting in the back of class looking innocent but as soon as we made eye contact her eyes seemed to say "Game on." I nodded in return and sat down to take my test.  As soon as I'd finished my test I went to leave the classroom, when I got to the door I looked over my shoulder and there she was, ever watching me, I smiled and triumphantly left her to starve.
 
     The way back home from classes was the most nerve-wracking. I was about to walk out a door when I saw a group of zombies walk past the front door, I hid before they noticed me, I had to be more careful if I was to survive.  I snuck out a back door and took a wide loop around the TSC and library (zombies like cafeteria food and books...true story ALWAYS infested) I came to the north end of the quad and I saw him.

     He was acting nonchalantly like he hadn't seen me, but I noticed that his direction was veering towards me, I likewise adjusted my direction and then I noticed another one coming from the other side, I surveyed my options and knew I had to seek refuge, I couldn't take two of them from opposite sides without back up. I increased my speed to a sprint and ran up the wheelchair ramp of Old Main, one zombie ran up the stairs to cut off my access to safety, I pumped some foam into him with my Nerf gun and grabbed onto the doorknob of safety. The surviving zombie and I exchanged glances. We both knew I didn't have a class there and that I'd have to come out sooner or later.

      I hurriedly reloaded my gun and dashed to the far South door hoping to confuse him by taking the exit farthest from my destination. I was part way through the LLC and then I saw him, he was slowly following me and decreasing the space between us. I stopped and threatened him with my gun, but we both knew my range wasn't far enough to get him. He maliciously grinned and informed me he had nothing to do for the rest of the day... I felt my skin crawl. I made a dash which he then started to run as well and just as fast I stopped, turned around, and opened fire upon him--I got him, and I got him good! He then began to follow me wounded, we both knew that he would regenerate in 2 minutes if I didn't get to safety fast enough. I went into a building and he followed me in, I made a maze through the hallways and lost him.

    Made my way though to the other side, checked outside to make sure it was zombie-free and made a run for it, all I had to do was make it across the road and I would be safe. I made it just in time and breathed a sigh of relief. I lived though the day. My joy was short-lived as I realized with a jolt of fear that I must do it again tomorrow and with the zombie-count now nearly 300, it was not going to be as easy.
   

...They're coming

     My worst nightmares have come true... they're coming. A few weeks ago some Biology majors at USU were goofing off in the science lab and they accidently mixed some weird unidentified chemicals--and thus it began. Over the next few days they started acting a little weird, they were quarantined and locked in a hospital for further observation and testing.  They started to exhibit aggressive behaviors and a hunger for meat, soon the doctors were to afraid to enter the room for fear of being fed on by the former students.  Soon it became obvious that there was no other explanation--zombies are here on USU's campus.

     Things were going fine and doctors were trying to find an antidote for the zombie virus, but today when they went to the observatory they found that the zombies had broken their way out of the building. The building was put on lock down and extensively searched, but it was too late... they were already out. 

     Things have quickly escalated, the original zombies began feeding on humans and those once humans then became part of the zombie horde themselves. The few zombies of this morning has now become 71 (63 when I started writing this)and counting.  It is a bloodbath out there. From the security of the library I watched as 3 zombies corner a young female human and brutally fed on her!  The only solace I have found is that I have a gun capable of stunning them but this only lasts for 15 minutes. The zombies travel in packs, animalistically hunting those of us who are left.  The remaining humans are cautious to travel outside, preferring to travel in numbers to better protect themselves from the horrors that surround them, the zombies have an insatiable hunger for human flesh and if they keep up this rate of consumption we will not last until the end of the week. The future is bleak. 

     I've just learned that there are 3 zombies on campus who are capable of blending in with the humans, I watched as two humans met and one began to devour the other! With zombies pretending to be humans there is no trust among humans any longer.  It's a mad world out there. I am trapped in it.  I'm afraid of being attacked, so I will write more later.... if I'm still alive, that is.