Natasha vs the Mosquitoes

Mosquitoes: 8
Natasha: 0

They attack me when I sleep. Cheaters.

Hiatus

I tried a new hairstyle the other day.

I apologize for being a blog slacker the past month. I've been really busy with Maddy and the new baby. Unfortunately, the blog slacking is only going to get worse. Tonight I'm leaving on a plane with Stef and the babies for Jersey, and I probably won't blog until I get back in a couple weeks.

A red-eye with a toddler and a newborn. Wish me and Stef luck. :)

Picture Post

This has been a very busy and fun-filled week! In lieu of lots of boring text, I've decided to show you my week in a picture post:

Tuesday we got to meet The Littler One who is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. Then I got to spend most of the day with the original Little One which is always awesome because she's such a good toddler. Plus I really like the Little One's grandma, so bonus!

Wednesday we got some yummy Pier 49 to share with our friends, and then I went black-light mini-golfing with my best friend Liz at Trafalga. It was really cool! I was wearing all dark colors so the only thing that glowed on me was my teeth, which was pretty funny. Lizzie was nice and gave me her arcade points so that I could get a parachute Batman that I thought was great.

I don't know why, but for the life of me I cannot remember what I did on Thursday. I had work off though, so I hope it was something fun.

Friday I got up super early to watch the hot air balloons from our parking lot. While I was waiting for them to appear, I took advantage of the fact that I am rarely up at 6am and watched the sun rise.

I also watched the early morning snails making their way across the lawn.

Finally the balloons appeared! This isn't a great picture, but my digital camera only cost $60, so I really can't complain. They had a pig balloon and a Smoky the Bear balloon this year. I sat on the comfy chair that somebody left in our parking lot and watched them.

Then I went back to bed. When I woke up, we went with Mrs S and the Little One to the Freedom Festival, which was more fun than I remembered it being last year. It was really hot though!

For dinner we went to a BBQ at my parent's house and made Cordon Bleu sandwiches. It was my sister's birthday and that is what she requested. (For those of you who don't know, 3 of the 4 girls in our family are born on holidays) Big 19! I remember 19. . .sometimes I'm really surprised when I realize I'm not still 19.

That night we went with the Hansons to watch fireworks by the MTC. Thanks for saving us a space! Evie was remarkably good-natured for being up so late.

All of Saturday was spent in Logan at a big car show. We went with our friends Pete and Rachel. You can't see it very well, but this is a casket in a glass box being pulled by a motorbike. (Don't worry, it was just for show, or I wouldn't have gone anywhere near it)

There were really big cars. . .

. . .and really little ones.

Overall, it was pretty boring and roasting hot, so I can't really recommend it.

Hope everyone had a good holiday!

More "fun" times at the doctor's office

Yesterday we did a minor procedure on a 17 year old boy named Luis. He was our last patient of the day, so when we were done with him, he came and sat in the lobby to wait for his mom to pick him up. Dr H went to his office, and I sat at my reception desk working on some things. Everyone else had gone home for the day, so it was just Luis and me up front.

After a while he came over to my counter and ask if I had any suggestions on what he should take for the pain. I told him that Motrin or Tylenol should work just fine and that we normally don't have to prescribe anything. He kind of nodded slowly, but then said that his feet were already starting to bother him. Since there's really no way the local anesthesia could wear off that fast, I started to get suspicious that maybe he was just after drugs or something (unfortunately, when you work at a doctor's office you deal with a lot of druggies). So I told him again that we don't prescribe anything for it and that as soon as he got home he could take some Motrin to ease the pain. He nodded kind of slowly and started to lean heavily on the counter.

And then he collapsed.

I heard a sickening "thud" as he fell out of my view and hit the floor. He was pretty big for a 17yo so there was a lot of weight to go down! It was one of those moments you see in a movie - I sat there stunned for half a second while I processed what had happened, then I jumped up and leaned over my tall reception counter to peer down at him. Then I ran around the desk and was like, "hey! are you okay??" His eyes were open but kind of glazed and he didn't respond, and even though I was obviously flustered, somehow I managed to think clearly enough to drag a chair over to him from the lobby and prop his feet up on it. Then I ran to Dr H's office and even though he was on the phone, I just said "Um. . .I need your help - Luis just like totally passed out on me." I felt like I must have looked kind of crazy, because the words came out in a half panicked/half nervous laughter kind of way. He immediately hung up and and started hurrying toward the lobby and said something like "we need to get his feet up" which, thankfully, I was able to say I had already done. By the time we got to the lobby, the kid was coming around so Dr H just squatted down to tell him that it was a normal reaction and that we just needed to get some blood back to his head. Twenty minutes later the kid was fine and stood up and went home, but geez. I had a headache for hours just from that "thud" echoing through my skull.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Things are never boring when you work for a doctor.

Some words of wisdom

I went driving with my 16 year old sister for the first time last night. Far less terrifying than I had expected, especially since I let her drive my new sports car.

I voted on Tuesday. Yes I did.

My heart aches for my friend. Luv you, L.

And finally, some parting words of wisdom:

Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you'll be a mile away and they'll be shoeless. (tehe!)

Highlights from my week thus far

1. I got paid and found out how much my raise was, and it was more than I expected!
2. Neal brought home cool presents from Morocco!
3. Farm Country was so much fun, and the pictures turned out pretty good!
4. I finally got Maddy to say "moo" after 4 months of coaxing!
5. I am having THE BEST MORNING EVER!
6. I get to go to a party and get prizes tonight!
7. My 5th post this month!

All in all, this is shaping up to be a pretty good week!

And Then There Were None

Okay, I HIGHLY recommend this book to you. I just finished reading "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie, and it was AMAZING! I actually consider it one of the best books I've read in a long time, and I've read some pretty good books recently! It's no wonder it's so well-known.

Just as a short synopsis for anyone who doesn't know, "And Then There Were None" is a mystery book about 10 people who wind up on an island together and slowly get killed one by one. Thankfully, it is not at all gruesome, gritty, or scary (one of the reasons I rarely read mysteries is because I get nightmares easily). But it definitely is a mystery, and the ending completely blew me away because I could not figure out who the murderer was!

I read this book because my youngest sister Roshini recently wrote a script called "And Then There Was a Nun" which loosely parallels Agatha Christie's book. It took maybe an hour for her to tell me the whole story of her play, which was very detailed and impressive, so it made me go read the real book so that I would understand better the subtle similarities.

Great stuff. Really, go read it. (I sound like Reading Rainbow)

"Cursed"

A very spooky Friday the 13th to everyone!

Big News!

I JUST GOT A RAISE!!!!

Blogger's Block

Well, can I just say that I have a major case of blogger's block. Despite my attempts to think of something clever to post to appease Miri's plea for "more blog" I have failed. Apparantly I blogged 5 times in May, which is actually more than I thought I had. Once a week is not terrible, I guess, except that I'm pretty sure that the first 3 times I blogged all fell within like the first week. Oh well.

Random tidbitties:

1. My first primary activity is coming up! I am pretty dang excited about this, because I think we are going to go to Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. I am excited to see all the animals, and feed them, and go on a wagon ride (because I'm pretty sure I'm too old for the pony ride), and pet the animals. . . Oh, and I'm sure the kiddies will like it too, of course. . . .

2. I am very excited for the little-er one to be born. I am very interested to see how my "goddaughter" (laugh) M will take to the new one. I plan on showering them both with lavish gifts (unfortunately not, since they won't really be able to take anything with them in the move, but I wish I could).

3. My allergy medicine does NOT WORK FAST ENOUGH. True, I have been taking it every other day instead of every day like I am supposed to, so that's probably the reason why. But it costs like $1 per pill so I'm trying to stretch them out. But I haven't been able to smell anything since April and it hurts to put makeup on because my eyes are so sore from all the rubbing. I splurged and got some soothing eye stuff from Mary Kay so hopefully that will help.

4. The doctor finally fired my assistant. Hooray! My stress levels have been just through the roof because of her ineptness and my workload feels like it's tripled. We've been doing interviews this week and they're going to let me have the final say on who we hire since I'll be the one working with her.

5. My abs rock. I am very pleased that my daily pilates/kickboxing classes are starting to do their thing.

Also I am pretty loopy today and I'm not completely sure why, so please forgive the craziness in the post. I'll likely delete it later.

Lastly, a comic that is funny from lefthandedtoons.com:

An Unpleasant Morning Surprise

This book is actually fascinating. I highly recommend it.

So I'm at the office, minding my own business, and a delivery truck pulls in. The guy brings in 2 large boxes and has me sign for them. After he left, I sat down on one of the boxes and started reading through the order sheet to figure out what they are. Finally, in one small corner, I find the words: "Goods Description: Exempt Human Specimens." At which point I promptly jumped up from the box crying, "ew ew ew!"

Working for a doctor is so startling sometimes.

Kavita

This is my beautiful sister Kavita!

I went to her vocal performance last night at the Northampton House. I haven't heard her sing solo in a few years, so it was really fun. I knew she had a good voice, but I had forgotten how good it actually is. As I sat there fiddling with my camera angle, all of a sudden I heard this deep, melodic, honey-covered voice resonating through the air, and realized it was my sister!

I'm so proud. :)

Free Health Screenings!

American Fork Hospital will be having a health fair June 7th and will be doing a lot of free health care screenings. Here's the link for anyone who's interested:

http://intermountainhealthcare.org/xp/public/americanfork/aboutus/news/article28.xml

"Hate" is not a strong enough word

I loathe birthdays.

Exercise

Starting Monday I am going to be taking a couple exercise classes at BYU. If anyone would like to come along please let me know! I am not so good at the working out by myself thing, as far as consistency goes.

The classes I am going to be taking are:
Kickboxing T/Th 8-9pm
Pilates M 5:30-6:30pm and W 7:30-8:30pm

Classes are $38, or $65 for two, and they run for 3 months. Like I said, if anyone's interested, let me know.