Valuable Lesson

I learned a very valuable lesson tonight, and that is: don't try to make home made lasagna when you have three feet of counter space and a stove this big:

It was a disaster if you can't tell (and this is after I started cleaning up).

I was throwing things into the sink, onto the floor behind me, trying to fit in all the ingredients somewhere on the counter.

So sorry Scott, no more home made lasagna until this counter space is at least x 2.

Prime Time

Today Scott had to study, so I woke up early and went on a long hike. I went up Millcreek Canyon and it is prime time up there with the leaves. I thought Emigration was pretty, holy moly! Millcreek is to die for right now! The aspens have just turned yellow and they are this beautiful buttery, gold color against all the dark pine and the blue sky. What a combination! Look at these beautiful colors! Everyone's got to get up there because it's going to go so fast!

An Inspiration

It is Friday (my day off of school and work), my day to get everything cleaned and run errands, study, but I have done nothing all day but sit and read this incredible book. I have not been able to put this book down, you guys have got to read it. It is the most amazing story of a beautiful girl from Rwanda and her experience and survival story of the genocide that happened in 1993. I will forever be inspired by this woman and will never forget this story. It is truly a miracle that Immaculee is alive, I know that God spared her life so that she could share her story with others like you and I. And believe me, he spared her life.

I promise you, it won't let you down. It will change your life forever. She was on 60 minutes and I'm gonna put a link so you can watch the clip (even though I don't want to ruin the story), but you can just get a glimpse of what she went through. If you're serious about reading it, maybe don't even watch the clip so it's a complete surprise. But even if you do watch the clip first, the book is what is amazing.
http://www.immaculee.com/

Last night we had the amazing opportunity to go to the Body Worlds exhibit. It was amazing. We have wanted to go to this for a long time, so it was such a treat to have it finally come to Salt Lake. The biggest "treat" of all was that we got free tickets because University Hospital put it on, and they offered every employee two tickets. So that was great! Scott is still on the payrolll at the U (even though he doesn't work at the lab anymore) so we actually got 4 tickets and gave the other 2 to his parents since they have wanted to go forever.
I can't even explain how amazing it was to see these bodies. The body is the most amazing, intricate thing. There is so much more I wish I knew. It was really fun to be with Scott because since he has been studying all of this stuff, he really knew a lot about the heart and all the muscles, and could answer a lot of questions. I guess maybe medical school is paying off for something (even though it has nothing to do with dentistry)!
For those of you who don't know what this is, they are real bodies of donars. They are positioned in all different poses, soccer players, dancers, skateboarders, javelin throwers, etc. You can see all the muscles, the nerves, the bones, the brain, it is incredible. Here is an example:I wrote down a lot of amazing things, here are just a few: -The arteries, veins, and capillaries that carry blood to and from the heart are more than 60,000 miles long.
-The cardiovascular network of the body would wrap around the world twice.
-If the brain was spread out completely flat (smashed) it would be 16 square feet. Can you believe that???
- The digestive tract is a long tube that is 30 feet long.
-The entire digestive process takes 20 hours.
-We walked into this room and it was all dimmed and you could hear the sound of a heart beating. There was nothing in there but a bunch of huge barrels and a sign that said, "This is your heart's workout today." Your heart pumps 1,800 gallons of blood through your body a day. That is 75 gallons an hour! I just imagine 75 gallons of milk going through my body an HOUR!
-They showed the difference between a smokers set of lungs, and a non-smokers. It was remarkable. It was completely black, disgusting. I don't know how a smoker could see that and not have a dang good incentive to quit.
-My favorite thing of the night was probably learning about the fetus. They had in glass containers, real fetus' at all different stages of the pregnancy. UNBELIEVABLE. I can't believe how tiny they were in the beginning. They were about as big as a grain of rice. I kept thinking, "How can something that tiny make a woman so sick?!" It was incredible that at 16 weeks the little thing had facial expressions and you could see their eyes. Then they had babies at 21 weeks, and up. I am sorry but a baby inside of you is the real thing. They are so real, I don't know how anybody could disagree with that.

-Just a couple of quotes they had on the walls that I loved about the heart:

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."

"All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is exclusively my own."

"Faith is an oasis in the heart which will never be reached by the caravan of thinking."

There are SO many other cool things that we saw and learned about, you guys just need to go! What an amazing opportunity.

Scott and I trying to compete with their cool poses. Close?

A day full of studying for a statistics test still can be enjoyable.....

if you start it out with this.......I just can't get enough of the beautiful leaves up the canyon, they are changing so fast. I wish my camera could do justice of what I get to see every morning.

It's gonna be a good day

Quick Catch Up

Well we are hangin' in there. Life is actually great. We are definitely more busier than we've ever been before, but it's really working out just fine. When it comes down to it, I would much rather be busy than have nothing to do at all. Time flies! I can't believe how fast these weeks are flying by. Hopefully it continues and statistics is over before I know it! It was quite a comfort reading all of your comments and your struggles with statistics (and of course the few of you math geniuses who offered to help me). It's just a hard subject. I have been understanding it a little better, completely teaching everything to myself on my own time. But yesterday during class it went downhill again. Probabilities are nasty. It is so far over my head I don't know what I am going to do. For the first time yet I haven't been able to complete a homework assignment. So far if I didn't know how to do something I just go back in the book and read how to do it, but this section isn't working that well. Uh oh. Test is next Monday, I'm hoping to pass.
Moving on to bigger and better things, Scott is doing great in school. He had his 3rd test this week today and I asked him how he did on it. He said, "Good." I said, "So you feel good about it? " He told me he got 100% but to please not to tell anybody (he's gonna be mad at me now), but sorry babe, it's just too awesome. I can't believe the load they put on these guys, it's unlike anything I've ever seen before. They have 5 tests this week between Monday and Wednesday. It makes me want to throw up just thinking about having a test in anatomy, histology and embryology, etc. all within 3 days. I have so much respect for all those guys and gals. It's amazing. He's still up at 5 every morning and home between 9 and 10 every night. Heavenly Father has definitely blessed me in helping me to just be a happy camper because I am doing great! The time alone has really been great for me to spend studying (I'm probably doing better in school than ever before because I don't have a husband or anyone to get home to). It's been fun to hang out with friends or just be able to come home from work and sit on the couch and read a great book while dinner's cooking. It's all working out just fine.
I can't believe Fall is just around the corner. I went up to Midway on Friday night and slept over up there. On Saturday morning my mom and I went on the most beautiful hike and the leaves are just beautiful. They change so much faster up there I can't believe how ahead of us they are. I don't think there is anything more beautiful than those bright red/orange maple leaves against the green pine trees. I can't wait till the aspens turn yellow. I was just sick that I didn't have my camera. It was like being in paradise. We are going to go up there this weekend and I will most definitely be taking some pictures. I love fall. I'm ready for a change of clothes too. I'm ready for jackets and boots. Do you guys get sick of summer clothes? I know I'm ready for a change.
I hope you 're all doing well too. I sure think we have it good here. I keep thinking about the people in Texas and what they're going through with these awful storms. My heart just breaks for them. I can't even imagine the horror of having your home destroyed, your streets flooded, not having power, it is such a tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with them daily. I wish there was more I could do to help. I think it would be the neatest job ever to work for the Red Cross and to be out there helping. What great people.
Have a great day everyone!

Stats Anyone?

It would be such a blessing to be smart in math. Whoever you guys are that ARE smart in math, you are LUCKY! I have put off statistics for 3 years now and have finally decided to bite the bullet and just take it. I mean, I've got to in order to graduate. I was going to take it next semester (my last one) but then I thought, "What if I don't pass? Then I can't graduate." So I'm trying to get it over with. So: It's week 3 and I am struggling. This teacher is the worst! I mean, I don't get a darn thing out of class. I am sitting front row and center, completely focused, trying to be a good student but it is not working. I go to the library to do my homework assignments for the class and what I read in the chapter isn't even CLOSE to what I got out of class. I want to just shake him and be like, "You need to learn how to teach!!!" He needs to be like, "Okay, today we are going to talk about deviation. It is when this occurs......." Then do some examples. But instead he just goes off and uses huge words that mean nothing to me. He makes it way more complicated than needs be.

So yesterday in class he was doing this huge example on the board going a million miles an hour. I was totally lost. I was so frusterated. So I raise my hand and interupt him and say, "Can you please explain WHERE you are getting all these numbers from?" (I'll admit, I had a little bit of attitude in my tone, but I was frusterated). And while I said it tears started welling up in my eyes. He just stared at me for a minute without saying anything and I could feel the tears coming. (Side note: this is in front of the whole class people). Inside I'm like, "No Teddy! It's gonna be okay! Don't cry! Don't cry! Don't cry! Just go read the book after class and you'll be fine." It was so embarrassing. So throughout the rest of the class he kept staring at me and I'm sure he was thinking, "Oh that poor girl. She's so frusterated she's crying." And I want to tell him is that he officially stinks as a teacher. He needs to retire. I wish I had a picture of him, just imagine this: Long greasy, gray hair that's in a ponytail. Thick bottle cap glasses held on by a black chums thing, and of course we can't forget the fanny pack he wears. Yep, that's Mr. Davis. Terrible. It will be a miracle if I get through this one.

Campout!

On Friday we went camping up at Albion Basin (Alta). It's gorgeous up there. While up there I kept thinking how lucky we are to have such a beautiful place literally right in our backyard. If I were to come here from out of state and see such a miraculous site, I would think it was the neatest place I've ever seen. I totally take it for granted. But man, it was sure COLD. It got down to about 30 degrees. When packing up our clothes I was laughing at myself for packing long underwear and my down jacket but boy was I thankful I had all my warm clothes because we froze! When you stepped away from that fire, you were runnin' right back!

Scott's very best friend from St. Louis, Caleb and his wife Cassie and their little boy Coop came with us. They are great! They've been gone for the summer so it was fun to finally get back together and catch up. After a long, cold night's sleep we woke up and ate breakfast and then went hiking up to Cecret Lake. I think that's the last of the camping we'll do in the mountains this year! It's getting too cold!

Stayin' warm by the fire

Scott & Caleb eating their smores

Caleb, Cassie, and little Coop

Scott catching salamanders in the lake!

How lucky are we? Look how beautiful that scenery is! I'm going to miss these mountains.

Farewell!

GOODBYE ELDER JOSEPH JACKSON CANNON! WE WILL MISS YOU!

My little brother Joe left yesterday on his mission. I'm so excited for him, but am already missing him. He's gonna be great! He was ansy to get out and serve. I can't wait to hear how he likes it! West Virginia here he comes! See ya buddy!

(Above) all the boys. (Below) Dad and Joe

Mom and Joe

We went to Sweet Tomatoes the night before he left for one last yummy, big meal!

Friday we went on a great ride! Just under 100 miles! We started out with 6 of us (four others from my work and my brother Brock). All of them are doing the LOTOJA this Saturday (a 206 mile ride from Logan to Jackson Hole), so I just tagged along for the good ride. It was a blast! We all met at the Hogle Zoo at 7am and headed up. Here was our route: We started climbing up Emigration Canyon all the way up to the top of Big Mountain. Big Mountain is so steep, everytime I am in the middle of it I swear to myself that I am never going to do it again, but it's the best feeling when you make it to the top. Going down the backside through East Canyon was a blast! We just cruised! We got down and went around the lake and then continued going North all the way up to Morgan. The valley was just beautiful. We stopped at a grocery store and ate lunch. Food has never tasted so good! I had the best apple of my life! Then we kept going and got to the base of a really steap climb that goes up to Huntsville called Trappers Loop. This climb was killer, about 8 miles straight up. The worst part about it was that you could see so far ahead and it looked like the steepness was never going to end. It didn't, not for a LONG time! Then we cruised down to Pineview Resevoir and were going to head down Ogden Canyon. Thanks to Brock we decided to keep heading north and get in an extra 20 miles. So we rode up through Eden and had one more really steep climb to get into North Ogden Canyon. I was eyeing the dang canyon our whole ride up towards it and I was dreading it. We started climbing and I was just like, "No way! I can NOT do this! This is insane! So we're going up in our granny gears and it feels like the hardest gear in the world. All of a sudden I hear a loud "POP"! Tierney's tire blew! When your tire blows out, it's such a mental blow, especially when you're in the middle of a steep climb and 80 miles into a ride. Everyone else was ahead of us so I stopped and got off my bike. I look back and Tierney sticks out her thumb to a truck passing by and asks the guy for a ride to the summit! He gets out of his truck and throws her bike in the bed and I ran down and was like, "Let me in! I'm not training for the LOTOJA!" We were laughing so hard going up that hill, it was SO steep. We knew we were soon going to pass everyone else any second and couldn't decide if we should duck or cheer them on. Bad decision made, we cheered them on! The poor guys were just dying trying to get up that pass and there we were with big smiles on our faces bumming a ride. It was awful of us! They just looked up and shook their heads. So we got to the top and changed Tierney's tire out. Going through Ogden wasn't fun, but we finally made it to the Front Runner Station. We took the Front Runner Train back to Salt Lake which was great! It dropped us off right behind the Gateway and then we rode home. I think Abby's GPS watch clocked us at about 95 miles total. Way to go guys! Best of luck this weekend in your race!

Refueling at the Maverick! Our last stop till the end!

Here is our route, check it out! http://www.mapmyride.com/ride/united-states/ut/salt-lake-city/700303765560