Boring Week, But A Thrilling Weekend

Really small because they are from my phone, but this is me in the hospital bed

This is the IV in my arm
How swollen my knee was
Another one of my knees
This was Laura playing with the teal rubber band they used as the tourniquet when giving me the IV. She wanted to keep it as a souvineer so they let us take it home:)

Well, this week hasn't been too horribly exciting. I had a lot of tests and I know that I did well on my Psychology one, but Sociology is another story. I also got some really good compliments from my English teacher on an essay that I wrote. I thought that I had a really good chance at getting a job at Barnes and Noble, but they haven't called me back yet, so I'm giving up on that plan. I have been here for a month and a half and still don't have a job. It's driving me crazy and I won't be able to do it much longer.

Friday night I went to the end of a dance with a guy from my ward named Phil. I was sick of being home and so I texted him and he said he could come get me after work and we'll head up. Well, he didn't get off work until about 11:20, so we missed most of the dance because it ended at midnight and he still had to come get me. After the dance we hung around the church for a while and I met a bunch of people from my ward. They were really cool and fun to talk to. I got the nicknames Roxy Girl (because I was wearing a Roxy shirt) and Miss Utah (because most the people I talked to knew I was from Utah). We found a group that was going over to Matt's house for rootbeer floats, so Phil and I headed that direction. After getting lost, we finally found the house. It was an older house that was rather small, but as you walk in the first thing you see is a grand piano in the kitchen. It was a gorgeous piano and after the invitation to 'go to town' I hit it up. The keys were harder to play, but I loved it. I have a keyboard, but it's nothing like a real piano, especially a grand piano. Phil has played the piano for twenty years, so he showed me up but he knew some really pretty songs. We had rootbeer floats, played the piano, played on a rope swing outside, and finally at about 2:30 am I decided I needed to go home because we were taking Shane to the airport at 4:20. I finally staggered into the house around 3:00 and crashed.

Saturday was Laura's birthday, so after taking Shane to the airport, we came home and went back to bed. I was going to be all sly and make her breakfast in bed but she was up before I was! So I offered to make her breakfast and she was very excited about that. I made her French Toast and then we got ready to go out and run some errands. Shane's birthday is tomorrow so we had to go and get his presents. Saturday night we went to dinner at Olive Garden and because of an enormous wait we just chilled on the front stairs and chatted for about an hour. Towards the end of our wait, we were suddenly surrounded by 20 guys in green polos. And guess who was on this soccer team! Our friend Jake Hustedt that we went to high school with. We were both really surprised to see him and he had the same reaction for us. It was really funny to talk to him. He was with the school Cal Poly from San Luis Obispo and they were up here to play Sac State on Sunday. Our waitress was really nice and funny, and I asked her if they were hiring and she said yes. She gave me some good tips to get the job and even gave me her name and her brother's name to put on my resume.

Well, Sunday was a very thrilling day. Saturday mornign when I woke up my left knee was really hurting me. Throughout the day it started getting really swollen and red. I was able to ignore it Saturday, but when I got up Sunday I could hardly walk. I couldn't put much weight on it and I couldn' bend it. I called the ask a nurse hotline to see waht I should do. She asked me if it was red, which I now noticed it had a circle around it about the size of a baseball or a softball. She then asked me if it was warm. Talk about a weird question, but to my surprise, it was. She said that it was probably an infection and that I should go to the ER to have it checked out. After calling my parents to tell them what was going on, I told Laura and she offered to come with me. I drove us there and we got in and checked in. I had a fever of 99.2 and could hardly walk. I couldn't bend my knee so I was walking really funny too. They took me into a room and I got into one of those fun hospital gowns and waited for the doctor. He came in and pushed every part on my knee that just screamed in pain and I almost wacked his hand out of the way because it hurt, but I managed to stop myself. He tested my lungs and heart to see if there were any other causes and then said that I would need and IV to get some antibiotice because I did, indeed have an infection in my knee. I was really nervous and happy that Laura was with me to hold my hand. They tried in my right arm and missed twice, so another nurse came in and tried in my left arm where after some prodding around he finally got it. It was very painful and I cried more than I expected to. It was interesting to have the IV because once the plastic tube was in my vein I couldn't really feel it. They drew some blood to do tests and then hooked me up to an antibiotic called Vicromiacin, or something close to that. It started making me itch, so I got some Benedryl straight into my bloodstream and was tired within minutes. Luckily I had Laura to drive me home. It took an hour for the entire 250 mL of the antibiotic to go in, but it was worth the wait and the blood test results were back by then. My white blood cell count was high, which usually means your body is fighting something off.

After being at the hospital for nearly six hours we finally headed home. We went to Target to get my prescription and then stayed home. I had so many painkillers and antibiotics in my blood stream taht I could not stay conscious. I was asleep by 8:30 and dont recall much of what happened besides my dad calling me about 9:30 and textign Bryce a bit. I slept on the couch because I couldn't wake up enough to get into my bed. I slept for thirteen hours and today my knee looks a lot better. A lot less redness and reduced swelling. I can bend it more now, but it still is very tender and very sore.

Not a Very Thrilling Week..

I updated this mid-week so now it's weird to be doing it so soon, but I made a goal to update it every Sunday. Yes, I know I've said this before so hopefully this time I can stick with it.
Well, I found out that I got a 92% on my very first college test! It was nutrition and not hard because I studied like mad! But I was very happy to do well. This week has been a continuation of job searching and trying to find some place that will hire me. I have been here for over a month and I am still finding myself unemployed. Laura and Shane got a job today at Sears Auto Center. They are very excited and should start at the end of this week.
I am hoping that I get the job at Barnes and Noble because it just fits so well with who I am and the fact that I LOVE to read. I've applied to a lot of restaurants too and those would be ideal jobs as well because servers here in California get minimum wage of $8.00 per hour plus tips instead of like $2.13 per hour like they do in Utah.
Well, I have made lots of friends here. I am trying to make friends in every class and it's hardest in Nutrition because everyone is so quiet, but I've managed to at least get some that I can talk to in class. Psychology I have a few friends and the teacher is really awesome.. Plus there's this really cute boy but I haven't really talked to him much :) In Sociology I have three friends who I met the first day. Tehy are very funny and one of them is in my ward! Plus I talk to my teacher a lot. She signs with me because her daughter is Deaf, so she knows some ASL. In English I think I am friends with my entire class. The class being focused around argument we always talk and before class too. It's been a lot of fun and that is by far my favorite class.
Well, this week I'm hitting job searching straight on and hard. I need a job, I cannot wait around anymore and I'm going crazy just sitting around at home!
No pictures this week because nothing exciting happened, unless you want a picture of my test haha :)

New House

This is my cute house:) We're in a weird T Court thing. So it's our house facing south, two facing east and one opposite ours facing north. Very strange, and we passed it trying to find it haha
Cool, random cabinets. the door on the left is where my room is, but I conveniently forgot to take a picture of my room :)

We have a really cool entry way, it's round! Ha, and the only tile in our house.
This is Laura standing in Shane's room.
Our magic never ending pantry!!!! It has the shelves you can see, then it extends down and around under the stairs. Awesome hide and seek place!!
Our awesome kitchen!
Opposite the kitchen is the living room where we now have a couch and a tv and such. Where most of our lives are spent.

Well, part of moving out is moving in. So after a bunch of trips down here we found the perfect house. It's four bedroom three full bath. About 1200 sq. feet and in a gorgeous neighborhood. We have access to three parks and an olympic size pool. It's just off the freeway and very close to a bunch of new shopping centers so it's awesome to be close to everything we need!

Well, September wasn't very exciting either. I at least have school to keep me busy and I am still trying to find some employment. Laura and Shane started school at the Universal Technical Institute (UTI) on Monday. It's fun to hear everything they are learning. Shane goes in the morning and Laura in the afternoon so we finally aren't all home at the same time.

August, Yes I know it's September, but this entry is just for August

This is our entire group for backpacking. Except Bryce who was taking the picture. From left to right it's Mimi, Jackie, Chris, Zack and me.

Our first fish! This one we cut up and cooked for dinner. I'm not a fan of fish, but I figured I'd try this one and it wasn't too bad. It was a trout. Bryce is very proud of it :)

Yes, Marz using her amazing fishing skills. Ha whatever, I totally faked what I was doing!

This is Jackie and Mimi watching Bryce and I attempt to fish. They were fun to talk to. :)

Ha, this is Bryce, that is my sweater. We were fishing and he was cold and I was hot, so I took off my sweater but it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. Ha but it was so funny I just had to take a picture of it.

This is Bryce trying to throw me in the lake. You can see my leg lifted because I was getting out of is arms. Also notice how tight my hand is around his neck. This means that if he dares to throw me in, he is coming in there with me.

The hand you see in the picture belongs to Bryce, the wet spot on my butt is where Bryce was holding me because the punk picked me up and he was wet!

This is me and Mimi in the water. It felt so good after we got used to it!

Well, as I was getting out Bryce thought it'd be funny to jump over me. Unfortunately, he slipped on the rock as he ws jumping and nearly hit me in the head. I realized he was going over me and it's a good thing I just stayed where I was because he barely missed my head. But now we were both in the water, so I got back at him for pushing me in :)

Ha, this is me and Chris pushing Bryce in. It's hard to see, but I had grabbed his wrists and tried to pull him in. Though at the time I didn't nkow that Chris was pushing from behind.

See, after I was so used to the water I didn't want to get out. So I jsut sat down. Ha jk. AFter walkign back to camp my pants were all dirty and gross so I brought down a change of clothes and was washing off my pants. It just happened to be easiest if I just sat down. Ha little did I nkow Jackie was behind me with my camera.

Lucky me, I was shivering so much but Bryce had a blanket right there and ready for me:)

Well, in case you didn't know I am very behind. So I will do what I did last time I was behind and organize it by the month. The end of July was uneventful as far as I remember, besides of course Logan, Rachel, and little Eva coming to visit! Well, I officially moved to Sacramento California on August 14. So the two weeks before that spent a lot of time with the kids and with friends too. I went country dancing twice, once with Bryce, Jaymz, Shanda and Heather, then the second time it was just me and Jaymz and we did hip hop too which was so much fun! I learned a bunch of cool new tricks and also had someone there helping me with tumbling. Little did I know that he taught!

I also had the chance to go backpacking up Little Cottonwood Canyon with Bryce and a whole group of friends. That was probably the funnest overnight trip I have been on in a while. While hiking three miles and gaining approximately 3000 feet in elevation, we finally got to the gorgeous lake and camped out. I got to go fishing for the very first time and Bryce and I even caught two fish! But one little rascal decided to spite us and jumped off the line jsut out of our grasp. After three miles I had the biggest blisters on my feet I've ever had to endure. We were going to do a big hike the next day, but Bryce twisted his ankle pretty bad and my feet hurt so bad I didn't even want to wear my shoes.

So the second day was full of more fishing, napping and just all around relaxing time. About the hottest time of the day we all decided to jump in the lake. I really wanted to go swimming so I was ecstatic. Zack was the first one to get in and he just ran in but was out of there so fast he didn't even get his shoulders wet! It was shockingly cold :) Bryce was next but more brave, so he ran and jumped as far as he could off the edge of the rock. He came back about as fast as Zack did. Well, lucky me I was next in line but had to really talk myself into jumping into freezing water, so Bryce tried to persuade me by picking me up and trying to throw me in, but I got out of his grasp and told him to let me jump in myself. Well, he did put me down but thought I needed more persuasion so he so nicely shoved me in. Man it's a good think I like him. Mimi jumped in too, and we finally got Chris in. Well, Bryce had pushed me and Chris in and he was trying to push me in again, so I jsut sat down on the rock, well, Bryce leaned over to push me in and I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him over my head at the same time that Chris pushed from behind. It was great revenge:) Except that he almost hit a rock.. Mimi and I were in the longest because after I got used to it I didn't want to get out so i was just swimming and chilling and nsinking because I was in my jeans. Well we all got out and decided to change and pack up to head home. I was colder than I thought though so when I got out of the water I was shivering a lot. I had Bryce to keep me warm and after I changed out of my wet clothes it wasn't so bad. Well, we bandaged my ankles and headed down the mountain. It was a long, painful trip down but I have never been so happy to see my car.

Sunday me, Brandon, Skyler, and Laura all went for a motorcycle ride. We went up to Wasatch and over South Mountain. It was a very pretty ride and we all had a lot of fun. I saw Skyler a lot the next three days. He had nothing to do so he kept coming over to my house.

Bryce decided to give me a going away date and we went up to our spot on south mountain and looked over old journal entries and old texts that we had kept. We played a lot of songs that had sentimental value and it made for a very good memory of the last days before I moved so far away.

I drove my car down with my mom and Dee because we had to be tehre a day early to pick up our key for the house. Bryce came over to see me right before I left and my dad came down from teh cabin so he could see me. I didn't nkow he was going to, but I was so happy to see him. I can't imagine having left without getting a hug for so long. It was so hard to say goodbye, but I managed to hold back the tears. So we cleaned it and went shopping for furniture and got a bunch of stuff done. Saying goodbye to my mom when she left California was not as easy as it had been in Utah. This was my last lifeline that I had and it was leaving me too. We cried a lot, as did Laura and Dee. After lots of hugs our parents left and we were officially college studnts living on our own. The next two weeks was filled with lots of movies and not much excitement. We didn'th ave school or work so there realy wasn't anything we had to do. We have over 150 movies and I think we watched most of them.

School started on August 25 and I love it. I have Psychology, Sociology, Nutrition and English. it is very interesting and I have learned a lot!