Times gone by.

Some days I miss so much Kenya and Mexico. Today is definitely one of those days.


I miss (as weird as some of these may seem):
- The smells
- The craziness of the cities
- Unconditional love from an entire orphanage
- Teaching American games
- Ugali (the best food ever!)
- Seeing the faces of mothers when you bring their child back with their facial deformity repaired.
- Matatus (the bus system)
- Trying my best to speak Spanish and getting laughed at by natives
- Meeting Mwangi everyday to play with him
- Telling an Orphan 'I love you' when they have never heard it before
- Going to a ward with no sense of time...so it usually went over an hour in sacrament.
- Being so tired from a 15 hour day in the hospital but feeling so rewarded
- Seeing Zebras on the side of the road
- Getting called "Mzungu" (white person) constantly in the street
- Really cheap markets
- The Operation Smile team
- Seeing all walks of life
- Able to be in the middle of surgery
- Rocking kids to sleep
And sooooo much more. I watched some videos of Kenya and Mexico and I couldn't help but cry. I feel like it is time for me to go back. YouthLinc just asked me to go to Thailand with them. I wish I could ... $$ *ching ching*.

Yes, most definitely funny.

I can't get over how funny Tina Fey is. I really forget how much I enjoy just about everything she does. Fantastic writer slash actress.



If you haven't seen Baby Mama, you are definitely missing out. Please see it.

Of course they did.

The Spectrum put this lovely picture on their front page:

I am SO glad they decided to pick the ugliest picture EVER where I look like i am wearing mom pants with fat thighs. But punkin looks cute! (that's the cow)

Stupid Rubik's Cube.

Don't worry that I have been working on this dumb Rubik's Cube for WAY too long. Even looked at the cheats...still no luck. Am I cut out for a nurse? All this math and science is really getting to me and this is just another way to show me that I am mathematically retarded.

I learn something new everyday.

Don't ask me how, but I was just trying to get on to my e-mail and this came up:

www.justaskjesus.com

Don't worry everyone! No need to pray and wait for answers! You can just email Jesus now. It says once you register you can:

* Ask and get responses from Jesus.
* Receive daily prayer email
* Send your friends and loved ones a blessing.
* Full access to our community and latest news

I seriously am dumbfounded. How can people really think they are emailing Jesus? Wow.

Yay for blood...and other news.

After much blood (no pun intended), sweat, and tears I got into the phlebotomy program. I am so stoked! And only a few more months til I can apply for nursing.


In other news in the life of Chels:

1. That same crazy professor (see previous blog post) asked a girl in front of the class who her plastic surgeon was for her booby job.
2. Cow pies for Kenya is on Wed. Wish us luck! I really hope we sell all the squares...it has been a bum cheek load of work.
3. My knee surgery (round number 3) didn't work. I know. I am so mad as well. It snaps like every two minutes harder and more painful than before...oh yeah, that was what was supposed to go away when I had the surgery.
4. Finals this next week! Uggghhh. My anatomy final is gonna be a toughy...and well the cadavers aren't looking so lovely or smelling so lovely either. Math however is gonna be bomb because my math teacher makes me come do math with her every day for an hour...even on the weekends for 3 hours. Bless her heart for working with my severely handicapped math brain.
5. I had two stupid seizures tonight because I am smart enough to miss taking my meds for three days. I don't know how I can be so stupid.

Uhhh....awkward.

Ok, so I have kind of a crazy professor that I am not really fond of. To make things worse this is what she said to me in her thick Filipino accent (I don't understand why she is teaching English??)":

- (looks at my knee) "Wow does that hurt?"
Thinking, wow! She actually cares? She was mad a week ago that I had to miss her class for surgery (like it's my fault).

- "Actually, it hurts way bad unfortunately."

- "More than a pap smear?"
Me thinking A: semi-irrelevant, COMPLETELY different parts. B: awkward...especially in front of the class.

- (me blinking really fast now because I am so taken back) "Uhm yeahhhh....way worse. Those are nothin."

- "Man I can't believe that! I had one it...hurt like hell!"

- "Uhhh ok."

- "Have you had them?"

- "Uhhhh... yeah, lots of times."

- "Oh...ok. Ok class it's after 12 lets get started."

Keep in mind everyone was listening. Duh surgery hurts more than a pap smear! Those are like 2 sec with no recovery. Weird. WEE-IRD.

And I got walked in on in the bathroom in the math department. Awkward.

Livin in apt 102

So for the next little while dearest Cami, Whitney, Dani, and Jenna are letting me live in their DOWNstairs apartment while I am on the crutches. Stairs are way more difficult than you would think.

Disgusted.

I don't know if anyone else has heard about the trampling that happened at Wal Mart due to black friday, but it seriously made me sick to my stomach. I think what makes me the most mad was that no one stopped to even help him, but just kept running over him. And then after that he just laid there because everyone was too busy to stop and help him. Awesome. I am so glad that getting $20 off Wii was WAY more important than worrying about a guy's head getting smashed to the tile. Seriously that would take A LOT of trampling to ACTUALLY kill the guy, but I guess it was enough. Breaks my heart. Too bad that wasn't the only incidence, but two guys shot each other at Toys R Us over a toy. People are seriously insane. What the JUDD is their problem?!

Read more here

Oh, we don't do that.

OH man, I can't believe that this is really happening. These are INSERTS that you hair spray in so that you can get even higher Utah hair. I can't even believe it. I laughed so hard when I saw this infomercial. These are called "bumps"...to bump up your hair. Please look at the website and laugh along http://bighappiehair.com/index.html. Sick...

After I spend time in the hospital....

I really enjoy coming home and watching OTHER people go into the hospital. I love the shows "Trauma: Life in the ER", and "Code Blue". Gosh I want to be a nurse so bad.

Tagged Baby!

Wahoo! I love being Tagged! This one was from cutie Kayla Powell. Here I go! :)

8 favorite TV shows:
1-The Office!
2-24
3-American Idol
4-John and Kate Plus 8
5-So You Think You Can Dance
6-House
7-Code Blue
8-Trauma:Life in the ER

8 books you’d recommend:
1-Native Son
2-BFG
3-Count of Monte Cristo
4-Man's Search for Meaning
5-The Diary of Anne Frank
6-Dear John (by Nicolas Sparks)
7-Press On (by Joseph B Wirthlin)
8-BofM

8 things that happened yesterday:
1-Taught Relief Society
2-Drove from St. George to Orem
3-Had Tequila Lime Chicken (so good!) for my birthday dinner
4-Had Banana Cream Pie
5-Grandma Baum brought me a present
6-Went to the Dunaway's and they gave me a gift! So fun to see them.
7-Watched the Office with my bro
8-Wrote Tyface an e-mail.

8 things to LOOK FORWARD TO:
1-Being off crutches
2-The semester ending!
3-Sleeping lots this week
4-Being with fam on Thanksgiving
5-laughing with friends
6-all the boys coming home from their missions
7-Christmas
8-American Idol starting

8 things on MY WISH list:
1-Cricut
2-The office seaon 4 and 5
3-Massage
4-Clothes
5-A new hair straightener
6-New perfume
7-An exercise ball
8-Cardigans

8 things I LOVE ABOUT Fall:
1- Leaves changing.
2- My birthday
3- The mountains
4- warm blankets
5- cuddling!
6- football games
7- The smells
8- Crunching leaves

8 people I Tag:
1- Aly Williams
2- Lauren Stratton
3- Mckell Jackson
4- Marilee Glazier
5- Brynn Homer
6- Amylyn Payne
7- Brittany Moulton
8- Meg Gazaway

Yahoo! That was fun, and I am on drugs.

Oh Boo.

Not really looking forward to tomorrow. Surg at 7:30 AM. Wish me luck!

Fantabulastic Birthday of Wonderfulness.

Ok...so I had the best birthday ever! First off, I have the sweetest roommates in the whole dang world! My day went like this:

Slept in WAY long because I got no sleep due to Loratab
Found a cute sign Linds made for me
Got taken to get my make-up done
Got taken to Samurai 21 (SO GOOD!) for dinner...had way funny waiter


Linds and Linnea gave me candy and a gift certificate to a spa :)

They made me a cake and Me and Holland had a birthday celebration with friends


oh...and we had a Celine Dion fest. So amazing!


Such an awesome day!

Tyface sent me a sweet action jersey from England, and tomorrow is my fam party! Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! I had a great one :)

Old Farts.

Ok. Possibly the funniest/fun party ever I went to last night! Each month for Ambassadors we try and do what is called a "sanity" which is simply just for that... our sanity. Last night we had so much fun with our old folks party! We all dressed up like old folks and played bingo and karaoke. Then we all had to bring and old people treat and so I brought Good N' Plenty candy, and those nappy big orange peanut candies. Please take note of my awesome fanny pack and plastic (literally) sweat suit...oh and inside the fanny pack are my pills. I wish you could have seen my socks and shoes too....they looked so dang good.

While we are on the subject too, what the crazy old drivers in St. George!? I swear with all the retirees down here all of the sudden I have almost been hit like 20 times. And don't worry, a guy was going 15 in a 40 zone. Hello friends! Let's keep the traffic laws. Anyway, here are some pictures:

Deep Breaths.

IF this is for sure not the longest week of my life, it is definitely a close second. Most for surely.

Updates (a small few of the many):
No more quality nanny moments of the day. I am not a nanny any more due to the knee.
Surgery is on monday now....yup this monday.
Crutches I am back on today.
My birthday is only 3 days away.
I am super tired.
and School is for snitches.

I quite like...

Cardigans/sweaters. A lot.

You can't spell 'fundraiser' without 'fun'!

Ok so I am in charge of our fundraiser for Ambassadors this semester and I am thinking it is gonna be kick awesome! It has so far been a big fat snitch to get approved, but after going clear to the Attorney General's office...I finally got the ok. Whew. Why so much hassle you ask? Well, because apparently it can be considered gambling so I had to change the wording very, very carefully and this is what we have come up with so far: We are going to have a "Holy Cow Pie Carnival" where you can buy a ticket for the "event" in which you will then be given a square and be entered in to a "random prize drawing". The field is then gridded off, and we let our cow go, and wherever it goes potty! That person's square wins an ipod. Since I had to make the carnival the main event and not the cow we are going to do these activities:

-Entertainment
-Pin the udder on the cow
-Cow pie President Naudald in the face
-Cow pie walk
-Cow pie eating contest
-Blue Bunny and Winder Diary may come...so hot chocolate and milk-shakes
-We got the mechanical bull!
-And cow roping

I think it is going to be way fun and all of the money goes to Warm Hearts Foundation to help build schools and water wells in Kenya. Yay for Kenya! Wish us luck, and let me know if you have any other funny ideas. Oh, and I found this brilliant costume for 20 bucks on sale....it will be good advertisement.

Hilare huh?!

I love...

This FANTASTIC book:

I am already such a HUGE fan of Dr. Suess and have always adored his books, but I have kind of forgotten how much I love them (besides the Grinch...my favorite movie of ALL time..I NEVER forget that). The other night I read this one to little Natey Naterson and I just loved it that much more! I think I am going to go buy it, and start up a collection of Dr. Suess. Such cute books with hidden messages. Here is a sampling:

“When I was quite young and quite small for my size, I met an old man in the Desert of Drize. And he sang me a song I will never forget, at least, well, I haven’t forgotten it yet. He sat in a terribly prickly place, but he sang with a sunny sweet smile on his face…”

“When you think things are bad, when you feel sour and blue, when you start to get mad… You should do what I do! Just tell yourself, Duckie, you’re really quite lucky! Some people are much more…Oh, ever so much more…Oh, muchly much-much more unlucky than you!”

Read it! I know you will love it.

Tagged! And Quality Nanny Moment....

Ok so I never get tagged! So I am stocked cute Kayla tagged me! The rules are:
1. Go to your pictures
2. Upload 4th picture of 4th folder
3. Post and explain picture
4. Tag 4 friends
So here is mine! A good one cuz it actually has a story!

This was my little friend who I called "Rafiki Undogo" which in Swahili means literally "my little friend". She followed me EVERYWHERE, and eventually after playing an exciting game of hide and seek I picked her up. She had freezing (yeah it was way cold in Kenya when I went! Crazy I know.) little feet, to I took off my jacket and wrapped it around her little toes-ies and rocked her and she was asleep in about 2 minutes.
Her sister came up to me in tears and said "You are the only one who has ever held her and loved her besides me. Our parents died when she was little and she longs to be loved."
Well, then I was in tears, and then we were just a big cry fest for a while. Good memories...and I love this little one!

Now I TAG! Julie Hinton, Amylyn Payne, Jules Garbutt, and Angie Williams.

And now for the story of the night!

My Nanny moment.



Tonight Emily (9) and Hannah (11) were up coloring and all of the sudden Hannah starts screaming. I look over and she says her face hurts, so I ask her to point to exactly where it hurts and I saw a little zit. So I explained it would go away soon and it was ok, they usually don't hurt that bad. "Puberty" I explained. Well, then she starts crying even more and says her lip hurts. She starts to scream "why does my face feel like it is burning off!?!" Well, I couldn't see any sign of anything anywhere on her face so I could not figure out what she was so upset about. Well, then Emily starts screaming that her eyes are burning....I look down to see my pepper spray lock had been opened and there was oil everywhere. "Great..." I think to myself, "so much for trying not to be raped!" About an hour later of blood curdling screams and trying to keep both calm....they finally settled down. Me and Emily had a good laugh after talking about the things she had yelled. They went a little something like this (through tears and screams of pain):

"I'm dying I know it!"
"That stuff kills people doesn't it?! Oh my gosh I am gonna die aren't I?!"
"Will I ever open my eyes again?!"
"I am gonna be blind!"
"Why do you even have that stuff?! It's so stupid!"

I tried to console her and explain that I knew it hurt like judd, but breathing deeply and staying calm was the key to helping it feel better. To no avail. We spent an hour washing out eyeballs. It's funny to her now, and it will definitely go down as one of the most interesting nights of my nanny career.

P.S. Don't worry that we also had a whole jug of koolaid spilt that night and a whole bucket of craft beads.

Crush Averted.

Ok so you know those crushes you get on a random kid in a random class?? You don't REALLY want to date them date them, but just maybe one date?? One little time to just spend with them just to see if they might even be slightly interested...? You're definitely not in it for the long haul, but the chase brings back all of those little Cascade Elementary school girl feelings of seeing Marcus Williamson on the playground during lunch. You get all giggly and forget your own name. Yeah well, I DID have one of these this semester believe it or not. However, at the fireside (which he is ALWAYS there...another great reason to go and be uplifted) tonight I see him, and of course the urge to walk by comes, naturally. As I stand nonchalantly talking to old friends, I see the CLASSIC suit coat go around her shoulders and his arm fit snug on her cute, petite, perfect little figure as he walks her home. Ouch. Owie, stabbing, put my heart in a blender and hit frappe. Ok, so it wasn't THAT bad. It was worth a shot and well, I have got to be able to tell Tyface I had at least ONE crush while he is gone. Now all my drive to keep trying to chase a guy has officially been shot out the window and gone for at least the next 8 months. It was short lived and kept life interesting for a while though. Hmph.

Is this some kind of sick joke?

I am scheduled for surgery on my knee for a THIRD time on December 22. My mensicus on my left knee is flapped back on itself again and I seriously can't even believe this is really happening. Meh, still better than seizures.

Merry Christmas to me!

TLC (Tasty Little Crackers)

Ok kids, have you these little wheat crackers by Kashi? They are delectable. I personally like just about everything from Kashi, but these are especially wonderful. Try the granola bars, especially the honey almond flax. Mmmmm....the goodness of 7 whole grains.

P.S. I don't even want to talk about yesterday's election...except for maybe just a little of my 2 cents. Who knows, hopefully he can deliver without taking all our money. And I am super excited about the first African American president.....and he's even KENYAN! Yay for Kenya. I will support our president...no use fighting against him, I would really like his help.

Today I am grateful for....

1. Our country
2. My right to vote as a woman
3. My education,
4. My fabulous family and their examples
5. My sight
6. The increase in my health. I look at where I was a year ago at this time and it is such a difference!
7. My job
8. The gospel
9. My friends
10. Big squeezes from little ones
11. My bed
12. Food
13. My car
14. Joseph Smith
15. Tyface
16. Medication/and advances in medicine
17. Nice people
18. Scriptures
19. My roommates
20. The Hoag's
21. And so many of YOU :)

I just wanted to say thanks this day!

The Last Supper.

So tonight was officially my "last supper". Tomorrow is the diet start, because honestly I have gotten chubbers. Unfortunately because of the inactivity of the surgeries and such, I have gained a little more than I am really comfortable with. And as my brother lovingly informed me, I am way off from my LGN (look good naked) body. It's true, and I would love to be to that point but it is not looking like it. SO here I go...and I really hate starting diets. Once I am on it, I am pretty dang faithful....it's the starting and the de-carb I hate. And yes Jules, it is monday. Like so many times in our long friendship lives have I said I was going to start my diet on mondy...it's happening again. But I am DETERMINED to lose at least 4 sizes and my Hawaiian love handles.... I'll let you know how it goes. Bring on the carb-less life.

Taming of "THE BEAST"

Dear friends,

My hair is EXTREMELY out of control. It has gone soooo curly partly because:
A) all my hair fell out last year and is now growing back. Problem: It's coming back in curlier, and it is short...so it is crazy on top! I mean INSANE.
and B) I am pretty sure with all this messing with my hormones to stop the seizures, is making me like pregnant women whose hair goes really curly when their hormones go crazy...well, my body thinks its preggers and it is severely damaging my hair image.

Here is an example of this craziness:


So what should I do? Any suggestions? Because honestly me and Cam (the roommate) sat in the hair taming aisle for about 20 minutes...straightening it has become an impossible task as well....I feel stuck. Like a prisoner to "The Beast" which is my hair. Ugghhh.

The couch is a wonderful place to be.

This Halloween I was such a bump on a log, watching endless random Halloween movies/epidsodes....and it never felt so wonderful to not do a thing! I don't know why my body is programmed to be sick every single holiday (I think it has to do with mid terms and finals). But it was ok...I am starting to get my voice back slowly, but surely, and all this extra sleep is helping me feel better. I would just LOVE to be done with this dreaded gombu! Hope everyone's halloween was fantastic.