Life update

Here's a quick update on my life so far:

I'm halfway through my CNA program. It's been really fun so far and not too hard. Yesterday I became officially CPR and First Aid certified. Oh man, my arms are so sore. We did a lot of practicing and I added up my total amount of compressions I did on a mannequin. 2,250. That's a lot of times to push real hard on a stubborn mannequin.

Next is I've been training these past two weeks for the 4th of July Freedom 5k run! My good friend Carrie really wanted me to do it with her, since that's her birthday, so I agreed to do it. At first I didn't want to, because I'm not much of a runner, but as I've been running everyday I'm actually really excited to do it. I know that a 5k isn't a big deal to some people, but to me it is. I'm also excited to get a cool free shirt and to have a fun time with my friend. Plus in order to get ready I've been trying to eat really healthy. One of the things I've been eating, or drinking I guess, is a nice green smoothie. My favorite green smoothie is one that has: Spinach, Bananas, Flaxseed, Cinnamon, Honey, Protein powder, half milk, half water. IT IS SO GOOD.

So that's basically all I've been up to besides work. Life is good and I'm glad for it. Oh, here's one last cute thing to end this post. Chelsey, my Mom, Cheri (my cousin), and I went out to eat for a girl's night out. Diesel of course came with us but was a sleep. He woke up when we were at the restaurant and had the cutest sad look on his face. If you can't tell, he has tears in his eyes. Here a few pictures I got on my iTouch. Enjoy :)

Things that happened this last month

Oops, I haven't posted on here in a while. My bad. I guess I've just been busy with all the stuff I've been doing. So, let me do a recap of everything that's happened this month and include some pictures.

1. I went on the annual Moab trip that Chelsey/Taylor and their friends on go. We had a lot of fun going repelling, hiking, rafting, camping, and eating good food. Plus, I got to spend a whole lot of time with baby Diesel. Awww yeah!

2. Went on a cute date with my nephew Railay. We had a lot of fun playing superheroes, watching a movie and going to his favorite place, McDonalds (yuck!)

3. Had a girl's day out with my sisters where we went to the Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival and had a picnic. 

4. I had my 20th birthday. Woo! I got a cool pop-up tent, a nice sleeping bag, and then got to go to REI and get some more stuff dealing with outdoor adventures. 

5. I saw the Avengers movie and it was THE BEST. Man, I need to see it again soon cause I forget how much I loved that movie when I saw. 

6. I went on a trip to a cabin at Brighton Ski Resort and that was a lot of fun. It snowed like 1 1/2'' on us, maybe even 2 feet. It was really beautiful up there.

6. Now for the best news ever. I'M AN AUNT OF 17. My sister Lindsey and sister Britt had their babies and they're both little girls!! They are so adorable!! Lindsey's girl is named Catalina and Britt's is named Izzy. I love them so much and I can't wait till them and their two other cousins their age, Diesel and Marshall, are older and can be the four musketeers. If you haven't noticed, I really love babies, especially my nieces and nephews.

7. I'm starting my CNA program today. I'm pretty excited to do it and I'm also excited to wear scrubs. Don't know why, but I have a weird fascination with them. 

7. Don't know why I haven't posted it up on here yet, but I'M GOING TO EUROPE IN FOUR MONTHS. AAAAHHHHHHH!!!! My mom and I are going on a cruise to Italy in October! We'll first fly to Venice, Italy and stay there for a day. Then the cruise ship takes off from there and goes to: Koper, Slovenia, Split, Croatia, Dubrovnik, Croatia, Messina, Sicily, Naples, Italy, and ends at Rome, Italy. We'll then stay in Rome for three or so days to see everything there is to see. BUT OH MAN. You don't even realize how excited I am for this! I've always dreamed of going to Italy and when my mom told we that we were going, I literally screamed out loud and had tears in my eyes, cause I was so happy. So, I can't wait till that happens cause then I'll have something really cool to post on my blog.

Okay, I think that's the most part of what's happened this past month besides working a bunch. I'll post some pictures and hopefully remember to post more often.

Lil' Diesel being a cowboy. "Howdy Ma'am"

My cool repelling shot down the crack. (This wasn't photoshopped or 

anything, just to let you know)

Taylor's cool repelling shot. (Chelsey went down to 

fast for me to get one of her)

Here we are after playing an intense drinking game consisting of

6 kool-aid jammers, 6 water bottles, 1 martinelli (a weird watermelon lemonade one), 

a really gross V8 fusion drink, and two big flavored water drinks. We then had a competition

on who could hold their bladders the longest. It lasted for 2 1/2 hours. Kylie (on the left) won.

Taking a nice walk on/around the lake.

I thought this was a cool cabin. I like the colors.

Here I am with lil' Marshall on the girl's day out.

Some of the sisters, mom and I at Thanksgiving Point.

Me and lil' Diesel at the gardens.

Baby Catalina! Look at that adorable smile!

Baby Izzy! Look at that cute dress and that little face!

I DID IT!

Oh my gosh, I got a B+ in my anatomy class! I can't believe that this has happened. This class was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I studied at least 30 hours a week, went to an unscheduled lab at least 10 hours a week, which was usually at 10 p.m. till midnight, AND THEN I also went to my scheduled lecture in lab class. Pretty much I had no life except for anatomy. I never got to hang out with people really or do anything fun. And if I did do something fun, I would feel immensely guilty. So, it feels absolutely amazing that I got the grade I need to count for the nursing program and that I don't have to retake it during the summer. I'm sure I would have gone crazy or something drastic if I had to retake it during the summer. WOO I'M DONE WITH IT. 

Camping, General Conference, Donating Blood

So two weeks ago the Ogdens invited me to come camping with them for three days and even though I was already behind with school work, I couldn't possibly refuse an opportunity to spend time with my awesome family WHILE going on a fun adventure. But before we made our way to Base Camp 1 we saw the Hunger Games. It was a good movie and I enjoyed it. :)

After the movie we headed up to our camp site. We stayed in their camper, which they had left in the middle of nowhere near Green River, and it was in a cool area. We didn't get in until late Friday evening, but on Saturday we did a lot of fun things. We went hiking up Black Dragon Wash, played a fun bean bag game, had a bonfire and cooked our dinner on it, celebrated Taylor's birthday a day early, played Settlers of Catan (of course), and other fun things. It was really nice to spend time with my family. I sure do love them a lot.

THEN this last weekend was General Conference which was so amazing! I really felt that a lot of those talks connected to me and were something I needed to hear. It's definitely helped me to make some hard decisions I've had lately. Oh also, last week I donated blood for the first time! It was a lot of fun and I want to do it some more.

Anyways, here's some pictures from our trip, but they're not really in any order of what we did.

Just chilling on the edge of a 400 or so ft cliff.

This was a crack between two cliffs we found while climbing up. Just below me is a llllooonnnggg ways down.

Thought I would get a cool shot of my feet dangling off the cliff.

Look at this adorable couple! Chelsey and Taylor are such good parents to baby Diesel.

The entrance into Black Dragon Wash.

Look how smiley baby Diesel is! He is one happy baby.

And here's base camp. It may not look like much, but it sure is a good little camper.

Spring Break!

This past week has been spring break for me, unlike the BYU students who don't get one. Haha! I love being a UVU student. Anyways, I had a really good time and it was especially fun because Tiff and her family AND Britt and her kids came down to visit for the week. What perfect timing! Even though I did have to go to school two of the days for lab, I got to spend lots of time with my wonderful family. On Tuesday us girls and kids met up in SLC at California Pizza Kitchen for lunch and then went to the Children's Discovery Museum. The kids absolutely loved it and I'm sure they could've stayed there all day long. Then after that some of us went back to mom's home and then had a zumba party. On Wed. we had a girls night out and learned how to make homemade paper from Jeff who works at the shop. I know it sounds weird, but it was really cool!

Those were the mains things I was involved with, but I did do a lot of hanging out with my sisters and kids. I am so lucky to have five amazing sisters (I count Britto as one of my sisters) and for them to be such amazing examples. I love each and everyone of them with all of my heart and especially all of their adorable kids! I can't wait to get married one day so my little kids and play with all of the cousins.

Anyways, that's all for now. Here are some pictures from our trip to SLC and of course pictures of the silly kids.

Galentine's/Valentine's Day

This week I celebrated two holidays: Galentine's Day and Valentine's Day. For those of you who don't know what Galentine's Day is, it's ladies celebrating ladies. My girlfriends and I all got together and went to a delicious sweet shop called the Chocolate. It was nice to hang out with them, since I hardly have time to do so, and to eat delicious desserts.

Then for Valentine's day, mom made a very nice dinner and then I showed her, dad, and Cheri the first episode of Pushing Daisies. That show is beautiful and the best thing of all time. After that, I have a very VERY special date planned. Now this guy who I went with, he isn't the most lively person I've met and he's very laid back. Oh, did I mention that he's a cadaver a.k.a a dead person? Yeahhhh, I spent my Valentine's evening with a cadaver for my anatomy class. So, I think I should win an award for the most unique Valentine's date.

Anyways, that's all for now. I will now leave you with a great quote from Pushing Daisies.

"[A hug is] like an emotional Heimlich. Someone puts their arms around you and they give you a squeeze and all of your fear and anxiety comes shooting out of your mouth in a big wet wad and you can breath again."

I see dead people

Today in my human anatomy class, we finally got to start working with the cadavers! So I literally saw dead people today. I thought I was going to be unsettled by it, but actually I thought it was fascinating. Of course the body didn't look as I thought it was going to be, since it was all dissected, muscles pulled apart, some limbs unattached, and nothing like an actual human being, but it was very interesting. I now feel that if I can observe the cadavers without feeling sick then I can be a nurse!

Now another cool thing that happened today in class was I suddenly got hit by the spirit. As we were talking about the different joints in the body and how some of them, like the synovial joints, are special compared to other joints because they have certain properties that prevent the friction of bones rubbing each other raw, WHICH prevents people from enduring excruciating pain that would lead to the bones becoming pretty much disintegrated. Anyways, it just hit me that there is no possible way that there could not be a God. I cannot conceive any way of how our very VERY intricate bodies could have been made by some explosion or whatever, and not by a very intelligent being. So, it was really neat to have my testimony of the creation and of our Heavenly Father strengthened in my anatomy class. Who knew?!

Anyways, I better get back to studying my million things of anatomy.

Quote of the day

Here's a quote from a tv show I adore called Pushing Daisies. I whole-heartedly agree with this quote. Trying to be happy is a very brave thing to do, especially during this day and age where there are a lot of people suffering depression or some kind of sadness in their life. I believe that if we try to be happy, even though we may feel sad for any particular reason, we'll eventually learn to overcome the veil of despair that looms over us and be enlightened by the rays of happiness. Starting now, I want to make a goal to wake up every morning and choose to be happy. Even if school is stressing me out, if I'm feeling sad about something, or whatever may happen, I won't allow myself to be sad. I will constantly try my best to always be happy. Anyways, this is a quote where I think that everyone should have printed out and placed somewhere where they can see it everyday

"I think it's brave to try to be happy. You've gotten so comfortable being unhappy. Wouldn't it be wonderful to wake up in the morning and choose to be happy, to let the water wash everything away?" - Vivian Charles in Pushing Daisies.

Best work day of all time!

So today at work, I had a pretty awesome day. For being a trophy/sports shop we have dealt with some cool items/done some cool trophies, medals, plaques, etc through out my time working there. We've engraved on samurai swords, machetes, and other awesome survival blades. We've made an acrylic award for the rapper Jay-Z and trophies, plaques, medals with color picture that looks like an actual photograph. But the items I got to play with today are supreme compared to anything we've ever dealt with. Ladies and gentlemen, I got to deal with REAL LIFE DINOSAUR BONES. Did you hear me? I SAID DINOSAUR BONES. This has been the highlight of my entire day. We have four authentic dinosaur bones sitting in our plaque room. There are three bones belonging to a Triceratop (a rib section, a vertebra, and a horn), and a metatarsal bone belonging to a Hadrosaur.

In the end, we are no ordinary trophy shop but we are the coolest one in the entire world because we get to have dinosaur bones in our presence. Yeah that's right. real. life. dinosaur. bones.

Why yes, I am holding an actual Triceratop's horn. AWWW YEAH.

Here's a picture of all four bones.

This is the Hadrosaur metatarsal bone.

This is the Triceratop's rib section.

This is a vertebra of a Triceratop.

And this is the grand horn of a Triceratop.

Things I've done

Okay, so here's just a list of what I've been up to since April. I hope that I can remember everything and they won't be in exact order of what I did first.

• Went to the midnight premier of Harry Potter 7 part two, which was absolutely amazing! There were so many feelings and tears during that movie.
• Moved out into Park Plaza apartments with my friends.
• Went on a road trip to St. George with my friends where we went hiking around town and at Snow Canyon, swimming, and other fun things.
• Went to the Tracy Aviary in SLC with my friends where we saw different types of owls, eagles, vultures, peacocks, and a whole bunch of exotic birds. We only had to pay $1 since they had a special offer and I would recommend people to take their little kids to it. It's was pretty cool.
• Marshall Kenney Dutson was born in November. What a wonderful bundle of joy he is.
• Went to the ranch in Fillmore for Thanksgiving.
• Saw lots and lots of movies.
• Had an awesome Christmas party with my friends, which consisted of secret santas, lots of food, hot tubbing, and other fun things.
• Had an awesome Christmas party with my family. It was nice to have most of the siblings over and all the kids running around the house.
• Taylor took my friend Andie and I to St. George for oneday, since he had a meeting to attend, where we went repelling, rock climbing, and went on a crazy adventure in some random place we found off the side of the freeway in the Virgin Gorge.
• Had another New Year's party with my friends, which was fun.
• Diesel Dean Ogden was born. It's so nice to have this little guy only two minutes away from home.
• Started my fourth(?) semester of school. I'm just taking Human Anatomy, but just that class alone is really kicking my butt.

I think that's most of the highlights of my life since April, but I'm not exactly sure. I only have pictures of my two St. George trips on my computer, so I'll just post a couple from both trips.

Here we are about to go climb through the Crack in St. George.

Here we are in Snow Canyon about to climb up some steep cliff to see Pioneer names

This is us after going repelling and rock climbing.

Here I am repelling.

Here's an area we found on our crazy adventures of climbing up two mountains

and then finding our way back down a gorge that risked our lives several times. Pretty

much this was the craziest adventure I've ever been on.