utah vs oregon state

score: 48-51

so... the game didn't go quite as i planned.  i imagined us winning this one, maybe even by a lot.

it turned out to be a nailbiter, ending in an overtime loss.  it was very sad and we were all a little heartbroken.

i was even more heartbroken that the game ended at 12:30pm, and i worked the next day at 7am. 

yuck.

on a little bit brighter note...

 it was the homecoming game and they decided to bring alumni cheerleaders back to do the fight song!

when i first told dawson about it he thought i was joking.  then he was embarrassed and tried to talk me out of it.

and then i told him all the cool kids were doing it...  and finally he accepted the fact and (kind of) cheered me on.

to be honest, we were all a little embarrassed for ourselves.

but it was fun for all of us to pretend for a little bit that we aren't old ladies.

if you can believe it, most of us are married now and some of us even have kids...

but we are all still cheerleaders at heart!

state fair 2013

do i have to mention again how amazing our group of friends is?  

i'm not saying that how much fun we have together is the reason that none of us have kids yet, 

but i'm not saying that it isn't.  

our motto is an inside joke, "this is friends", and it speaks for itself.  

we might love each other a little bit too much... nah.

we plan get togethers at least weekly (ok, usually more) for whoever can come.  

last week since the nicols got back in town, we decided to go big at the state fair!!!  

it almost tried to rain on our parade, but our enthusiasm scared those rain clouds away.

hands down the best part of the night was our grand finale on the gravitron.  

it took some convincing since we are getting older and our stomaches are getting weaker, 

but we all got on and looked death in the face.... and CONQUERED!!!  

aaaaaand then we all decided that might be our last time on the gravitron.  

but hey, if we were all able to go eat hire's cheese fries and root beer freezes after without puking, 

i'd say it was a success.  

the carnis, the people that we saw that we never knew existed in utah, the funnel cake, 

the rides that could collapse at any moment, the over priced games, the smelly barn animals, 

nicole's talent of sneaking us onto rides and getting free stuff, 

the ab muscle i pulled from laughing so hard in the gravitron... 

it was an unforgettable night at the fair.

utah vs. weber state

score: 70-7

good friends, 10 touchdowns, and super nachos.  it was a good day.

oh and my dad is the coolest.

last friday night

for some reason i thought summer was wedding season.  little did i know, i was dead wrong.  

or maybe we just weren't very popular during the summer and have suddenly become way cooler?  

either way, we have more september wedding invitations on our fridge than all summer combined.    

last friday started off the fall wedding season with brecken and brent's weddings.  

i expected it to be a mini high school reunion and i couldn't have been more correct 

(if you remember my crisis post from a few days ago, this is what sparked it). 

girls are a little bit better at keeping up with each other than boys are and i still see a lot of my GF's regularly
(although we could still do better). 
so it was fun to see all my old BHS buddies at brent's wedding,
and even more fun to see that they are all grown up and have the cutest little wives.
britt and i may have only been 2 years older than most the girls, but we felt ANCIENT.
however we must have pulled off looking young and hip,
because they invited us to join their bunko group (is that an oxymoron?)!

after a long and exhausting night of catching up and socializing, it made me even more glad to be going home with my best friend of all.  

it's nice to have found my person that i don't get sick of (knock on wood).  

and after discussing everyone and everything that went on that night and finding out we were thinking the exact same thing, 

it just goes to show that we were meant for each other.

especially when we find out we were thinking the exact same thing about needing a treat after such a great display of socialization.  

donuts and orange bang from the gas station?  just call us classy.

nurse missy

     this last week was my 2 year anniversary at my job as an RN on the "orthopedic trauma and surgical specialties" floor at the university of utah hospital (i know it sounds very intense and, trust me, at times it is!).  most days are so crazy that time flies by, which is actually really nice when your shift is 12 hours long.  i have gotten over the terrified new nurse phase finally and now love my job, although i am still learning something new almost every day i work.  

here is a list of some things i have learned in the past 2 years:

• waking up and being to work by 7am IS possible, but it helps when your commute is only 5 minutes
• difficult and needy patients are great practice for having kids
• as is working night shifts and surviving on only a few hours of sleep
• as is changing an adult diaper because it's 100x bigger/grosser/stinkier than any baby's diaper ever could be
• some people will claim their pain is at "level 10/10" no matter how many pain medications you give them and no matter how minor their injury is
• the most wussy patients i have ever had are males between the ages of 18 and 35 
• a LOT of people break their femur skiing
• doctors may think they know everything, but a lot of times the nurses know more than they do
• sometimes you give enough narcotics to tranquilize a horse and it doesn't even phase an 80lb grandma because of all the meds she takes at home
• having great co-workers makes all the difference in the world
• having your best friend work on the same floor as you is the best thing ever, even though you rarely have time to talk to each other when you work together
• the waffles we consistently make and eat on nightshifts at 2am do not help your waistline
• the most annoying thing is having a patient in pain, and you can't give them anything unless the doctor orders it (and the doctor doesn't return your page for hours and then only orders tylenol)
• people on drugs and/or alcohol + motorized vehicles = bad combination 
• a paper cut is the absolute worst thing ever because you use hand sanitizer 1,000,000,000 times a day
• i am no longer grossed out by anything anymore and have a hard time recognizing if something is not appropriate to talk about while eating
• nursing is 50% taking care of patients and 50% charting what you did
• there is no better feeling than getting a phone call at 5am from the charge nurse saying they are overstaffed and you don't need to come in that day 
• beeping IV pumps haunt me in my sleep, even after i have been home for hours
• the first thing i notice about a person isn't their smile, their hair or their eyes; it's whether or not they have good veins
• even with all the stress my job puts me through, knowing that i helped somebody and hopefully made a difference in their life makes everything worth it

  

it was one of those days...

 

i looked in my closet and couldn't find one single thing that i liked,

and couldn't go shopping because i got a new jacket that took up my whole month's budget

(it wasn't an expensive jacket. my budget is just THAT small).

i had roots and frizzy hair that wasn't acceptable for the public to see.

a big teenage-like zit in the middle of my forehead with another one on it's way.

the scale told me i weigh 5 lbs more than i did a month ago and still all i wanted to eat was a donut.

and everyone on social media just seemed to be getting prettier, skinnier, and have more expensive new clothes.

so i turned to my husband and like usual he found a way to make me laugh and feel a little better.

i sure am lucky to have found that guy.

i still might be hibernating, making myself eat broccoli, and avoiding social media for awhile.

but at least i have an amazing husband to keep me company,

and when i come out of hiding it might be cold enough to wear my new jacket! 

(which is actually really cute despite what my husband says).

utah vs usu

score: 30-26

welcome back college football!

the most fun yet stressful time of the year.

for most people football season means their saturdays just got a little more entertaining,

but for me my saturdays just got a lot more nerve-racking.

it would be nice if i could enjoy football games like everyone else.

like maybe tailgating, socializing with friends, celebrating a win or quickly moving on from a loss.

instead i have sky-rocketed anxiety levels...

can't eat the whole day cuz i'm so nervous...

can't sit by friends because i can't be distracted ...

can't drink anything because then i'd have to leave the game to use the bathroom

(heaven forbid i miss a play)...

and then more stress because i worry about my cute dad and whether his head is going to explode or not.

that being said, i love football with all my heart and am so excited for this season!

we didn't tailgate this game (like i said, the thought of food was terrifying),

but we did go to the ute walk since i think it's good luck.

we also went down on the field for a little bit for pregame.

ashley has been doing a video internship at the U so she was down on the field as media crew.

probably the cutest media crew member you will ever see

(also the only one who isn't a sweaty 200+ lb male).

president uchtdorf has made it a habit of coming to the first game of the season,

so he was down on the field too.

what can i say, the guy knows what team to cheer for!

he also took the time to speak to the families of the players who got in the fatal car accident this summer.

it's a heart breaking story and i hope the families found some comfort after speaking to him.

they honored our player who passed away, gaius 'keio' vaenuku #95, before the game,

and it was really cool to see the whole MUSS hold up his number,

as well as the stickers on the players helmets that they will be playing with this year.

overall the game was too stressful on everyone.

i'm not going to lie, when we were down 23-14 i almost gave up hope.

thank heavens for a well planned out and practiced on-side kick at the perfect time,

because it changed the whole game for us.

dawson said it was a perfect college football game because it was exciting down to the last play.

i say it was horrible because i would rather have us win by 50 points and it be the most boring game ever.

we'll see who gets more of what they wish for the rest of this season!

another whittingham has joined the family affair!!! alex decided to walk onto the team and is the 3rd whittingham to wear a ute jersey.

cuzzin ashley

 

ashley has been in town for the past 3 weeks and it has been FABulous.

i wanted to hang out with her 24/7 but she did this silly internship thing and was productive with her life.

lame.

luckily she had to eat to survive so i got to go out to eat with her and anyone else who could join us,

as well as see some dollar movies (we can't break the bank here)

and simply just hanging out and talking/laughing til our stomachs hurt.

 

jason and i also talked her into going out to breakfast with us a lot for "cousins club".

together we hit up almost every breakfast joint in salt lake and gained about 10 lbs each.

well except for jason, who is a beast and can eat whatever he wants and still be 100% solid muscle.

"it's so hard for me to gain weight, i have to eat ALL the time" - jason.

wah wah wah.

why do boys have all the luck?

ash is now back in cali for her last semester at cal poly and to say i am going to miss her is an understatement.

but i will live vicariously through her with all her college stories that make me both miss college and also be so glad i am done with that part of life at the same time.

(friends, parties, sorority = fun. dating, class, drama = misery)

i'm keeping my fingers crossed that an amazing job is available in utah come january so we can keep this girl here permanently.