SNOW!!

I'm sitting in my office at work and I turned around to look out the window and I noticed that low and behold it is snowing!  The first snow of the year!  CRAZY!!! 

Before, after, and a surprise!

So I wrote on Facebook that I placed rubber mulch in my flower beds.  It looks so much better than bark, it holds the moisture in better, doesn't loose it's color, and is coated with antimicrobials so it will not grow mold. 

Here is the flowerbed before I did any planting or layed the rubber mulch. It is pretty sad looking.

Here it is after rubber mulch is placed, and flowers planted.  I should have taken pictures before the tree started to loose it's leaves.  It looks so much better. 

This is a close up of the rubber mulch.  It looks real and totally improved the look of the front flower bed. 

We were completely limited on what we could do to the front of the house per HOA regulations.  We wanted to increase the curb appeal by placing nice chocolate brown shutters, paint the front door, and change the entrance light fixtures to bigger ones.  The HOA shot down each of these ideas.  They said we could do anything that was already done on other homes...I don't think they understand that this does not help us STAND OUT from the other homes in the area.  Some of these other things involved placing siding or rock up on the house.  Both of these options are REALLY expensive and we wanted to improve curb appeal for small $$.  Geez...they totally don't watch HGTV (my favorite channel). 

Anyway, we hope our small changes help us bring in the $$ quickly because.....

DRUMROLL.......

We are moving and need to sell! 

Yes, you read right.  We made an offer on a home almost 2.5 weeks ago and just heard that we are under contract.  We are supposed to close by October 30th!  We are kinda freaking out that October 30th is only 2 weeks away. 

We have a LOT to do in the next 2 weeks and not looking foward to it, but we are WAY excited!  I will post pictures of the house a little later! 

Just a tad bit behind...

So I've slacked again and just barely posted things from back in July. So please scroll on down through some posts to see the previous ones that took me forever.

I had some serious issues with the slide show feature today. It totally ticked me off and then I called Ashley and of course she knew how to fix it. I should have called her earlier and saved myself some time. Thanks Ash!

Oh well...I have more to post but will call it a day today. More later.

Battle wounds...

When Al sliced his wrist open with a mirror (accident) back on Memorial Day weekend, I took pictures with my phone camera while we were in the ER. When we got home, I couldn't find where my phone had saved them. I looked forever. Then the other day I FOUND THEM!

**WARNING**

Bloody pictures to follow...

If you have a weak stomach, you may want to skip this post...

(Personally, I think they are awesome pictures and not gruesome at all. But I've been reminded that not all people like blood. I just wish my phone camera was better quality; they are a little grainy and don't show all the cool anatomy that the mirror slice exposed.)

His wrist is healing slowly. He has had problems with some "binding" of the tendons. The surgeon thinks he has some scar tissue that developed around the tendons which is limiting his movement. He has another follow-up appointment next week (I think) to evaluate to the need for further surgery to break up the scar tissue. He has been doing his exercises to loosen the tendons but it just doesn't seem to be improving a whole lot.

We hope he doesn't have to have another surgery. However, he says, "if I have to get it done, I want to get it done before Christmas so I can snowmobile at the cabin." Talk about priorities. LOL!

Island Park with Friends!!

We went to my Dad's cabin with our friends and their families in July. We planned the excursion MONTHS in advance so everyone could arrange their schedules, get work off, plan, etc....

All in all we had 6 adults (Beka, Kent, Dave, Katie, Al and myself) and 5 kids (Tyse, Emmitt, Ollie, Lincoln, and Scout). Despite the long drive and packing involved, we had an awesome time.
Al and I pulled our boat up and the kids had a blast. Now whenever Katie or Beka mention to their kids that Al and Nikki are coming somewhere, they ask if we are bringing the boat. I guess we are now the "boat people". We surfed, wake boarded, and skied. The kids spent a lot of time swimming (even when the water was cold and their teeth were chattering so bad they couldn't talk).


We spent a day in Yellowstone park seeing Old Faithful and the other geysers in that area. Al and I are not very good at taking pictures. We just forget we have a camera and don't remember to take it out.

Now we all need to plan for a winter exhibition to the cabin...

I caved to the rage

I caved to the Twilight rage. I started reading the books before our trip to Island Park (week of July 4th) and since then I've read all four of the Twilight books. I must say that books 1 and 3 were my favorites.
I'm definitely part of "Team Edward". I've heard that many people did not like four book, "Breaking Dawn", I have to disagree. It wasn't my favorite, but I still enjoyed it.

What can I say? I caved and am in love with the saga. Although I don't think I got into as much as my friend Kristina - she claims to have had times where she wondered what Edward was doing. (Sorry Kristina. I had to confess the different levels of obsession so I could say I wasn't as bad as you).

Anyway, I loved it and highly recommend it to others (like myself) who resisted the initial craze.

Island Park 2009 - - Hunsaker Family Trip

Ode to the beautful cabin

and it's amazing sun sets...

This family time at the cabin was especially important as it was right before Kenny and Carrie moved to China. It would be the last time our entire family was together for a long time. We had tons of fun and laughed way too much.

Highlights include:

The first "Dink Olympics" starring Kenny and Craig.

Exhibit 1:

Exhibit 2:

Austin's 5th birthday at the cabin.

Noah got a little excited to help Austin with the candles.

Fishing:

Surfing:

More pictures:

Last group of pictures:

Fun was had by all and the week went by WAY too fast for me. I swear, I will find something that I can do while living at the cabin so I never have to leave. Until then, I just have to continue to visit often and enjoy it while it lasts.

Decision time

I've been doing a lot of thinking about my future and what I really want out of life. I have a great opportunity at work and am feeling some HUGE pressure to apply for the job that I've been doing as a "temporary" assignment for the last year.

A little background for those of you who may not know, I have been doing double duty at work for the last year. Not only have I been the Dialysis Nurse Manager (and occasionally still staffing the unit) but I've also been the Acting Associate Chief of Ambulatory Care. The second job is my boss' old job. She was just promoted to be the Nurse Executive for the hospital. The hospital's main leadership is called "The Pentad" and it consists of (obviously) 5 members: The Director, The Associate Director, The Chief of Staff, The Nurse Executive, and The Director of Clinical Operations. Under the Nurse Executive are the "Associate Chiefs". I've been doing one of those jobs (which consists of being over all the out patient areas in the hospital for nursing). It is a pretty high visibility job and I love doing it. However, I also love doing dialysis and being their manager. I get a little confused on what I want out of life and what choices I should make.

The job became available a couple weeks ago and I applied so I wouldn't have to act in the position any longer. I hoped that by not acting that my decision would become more clear. The VA has this rule about not acting in a position that you want to apply for...some how acting in a position for a year is okay but acting in it while the position is posted MIGHT give me some unfair advantage. Whatever...the advantage already happened. Not acting did it's job. I was able to find some clarity and peace with my decision. I didn't falter anymore.

I made up my mind last week. I do not want to apply for the job. I should rephrase that, I want it but the timing is all wrong. As much as part of me wants the job, I want to focus on other aspects of my life. It was pictures like the ones in this post that helped me make my decision. These pictures just make me smile. After looking at them or spending time with these kids that I know FOR SURE that I want kids to be in my future and I can't get them here if I'm working all the time or if I'm so stressed that I can't function outside of work.

I've stolen most of these pictures from other peoples' blogs...so for those of you who see Carrie or Ashley's blog on a frequent basis, this may be a repeat for you. Oh well...enjoy them again.

If you didn't know, the kids in this post are my sibs kids. The little girl is Ellie (Ashley's little girl), the first boy - in green shirt - is Micah (Chris' youngest boy), 2nd boy - in red shirt - is Zachary (Chris' oldest boy), 3rd boy -in royal blue shirt - is Austin (Chris' middle boy), and the 4th boy - in sky blue shirt - is Noah (Kenny's little boy).

Traumatic weekend

Traumatic Part 1:

The weekend is Memorial weekend and Al went and got a haircut. The hair cut accentuated some thinning so we discussed shaving it off. So here is the before....



And AFTER:



I think it is awesome! He was a little unsure about it with comments (as we were shaving it) like..."What did you make me do???" and "There's no turning back now!!"

Al was a little self conscious about it and of course we had to show it off at a family dinner at his sister Shana's house on Sunday. Her son, Garrett, had a birthday and we were going to do a birthday dinner at her house in Springville.

Traumatic Part 2:

Now Shana and Mike have been holding a frameless mirror in their dining room for over 2 years. They offered it to us and we told them we would take it off their hands. However, each time we are at their house, we forget to take it with us. As we were getting ready to leave, Shana says, "Hey are you guys gonna take that mirror?" We measured the back of the car and sure enough it would fit. Al picked up the mirror and was hauling out to the car when one of the corners of the mirror nicked the concrete stair.

In slow motion, I saw the mirror ripple and shatter over his head. Al jumped out the way but he wasn't quick enough. One of the glass shards hit his right wrist and slashed down to the bone. So we wrapped him up in dish towels and drove to the nearest ER, Utah Valley Regional Medical Center (UVRMC).

They triaged him quickly, wrapped his wrist in a compression dressing, and then the waiting began. We entered the ER around 7PM and we were not taken back to a room until almost 10PM. He got an XRAY to make sure no glass shards were still in his wrist. Then the doctor came into evaluate his wrist. He found that one tendon had been cut. He did not hunt further because he already knew Alan needed surgery.

Unfortunately, by the time we saw the doctor, it was close to midnight and the hand surgeon was already out of the hospital. He set us up with to see a hand surgeon on the following Tuesday (Monday being the holiday). We left the hospital with a crude splint and ice packs. I took pictures of the gash on my phone but somehow they disappeared. So no bloody pictures here...sorry. I'm really ticked about it.

This blew his Monday plans...putting the boat back together again. Over the winter, Al had the boat reupholstered and all the parts needed to be placed back in the boat. That didn't happen.

He saw the hand surgeon on Tuesday which was a wasted visit. The surgeon just did a "pre-op" visit. Total waste. He had surgery on Thursday. When the hand surgeon got in there he found that all three tendons and a nerve had been severed by the glass shard. He had to make another incision higher up on his arm to retrieve the tendons that had "snapped" back up into his arm.

He hand and the first portion of his forearm were immobilized for the first 2 weeks following surgery. Even after that his movement was really limited. It's just been in the last 2 weeks that he has being moving it more and using it on a regular basis.

Play dead

My Dad sent me this clip from the Dave Letterman show. I thought it was way funny and had to share.

Oh the Springs of Country Woods...

My sister emailed me a couple weeks ago asking me: "hey isn't this the complex where you used to live??" Indeed it was.

I don't think anyone used to believe me that my roommate and I lived in the ghetto. One of our downstairs neighbors grew, smoked, and sold pot out of their apartment. The smell would come up through the laundry room and all of our clothes smelled like pot. The next group of people to live there were a domestic violence family. We had the wife pounding on our door many times to let her in b/c her husband was beating her. Her daughter would climb up the deck and come in the apartment. Finally, one time my family came to visit me. Once Mom and Dad got inside the apartment, my Dad asked me if I knew there was a car on fire in our parking lot. Lovely.

See part of the article posted below:

Suspect fatally shot during Midvale home invasion

MIDVALE -- There was a terrifying wake up call for neighbors in a Midvale apartment complex as a home invasion robbery turned deadly.

Four people were inside the apartment Tuesday morning when there was a knock at the door. They answered it, and

that's when the ordeal began. When it was all over one suspect was dead, shot by one of the residents in the apartment.

Police have been able to identify the man shot and killed during the home invasion at the Spring of Country Woods Apartment complex at 6995 S. 1030 East. They say the Metro Gang Unit was able to identify him through the tattoos on his body. They are waiting to release his name pending family notification.

Police say he had been affiliated with gangs in the past, but whether this was gang relates is still under investigation.

Race for the Cure 2009

So it has become an annual tradition to run in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. There are many people at work who have been affected by breast cancer.

I started to run when Sharon (nurse at work) was diagnosed. Back then we were team Sharona! Here is a picture at Sharon's house after running my first year (left to right: Shelly, Me, Tami)


Then my friend Shelly (red head in picture above) was diagnosed with Liver Cancer and she passed away. I know the race is mainly for breast cancer, but Shelly is one of my driving forces to run each year.

Since then, many other women I know have been diagnosed with breast cancer...including Grandma V. So in honor of all these women, I drag my bootie out of bed to run.

Tami and I at this years' Race for the Cure.

Merry Late Christmas to US!!!

Santa was a little late in getting to our house this year. I guess he was looking for the best product for the least amount of $$. We have been looking for a massage chair for a LONG time. We wanted to get one for each other for Christmas. Unfortunately, we couldn't find one for the right price around Christmas. Al (being the great bargain shopper that he is) found this one online. He ordered it while we were on our Moab biking trip and it arrived that next week! We are so excited. I think I could live in this chair...it is that good.

The chair has an MP3 plug in and the bass vibrates through the seat of the chair and the head rest has the other speakers.

Here is Al massage chair dancing. I will apologize in advance...you can here me cackling quite loudly in the background.

I think I'm just a little weird b/c I thought this was hilarious!

It is official...I'm in love with this chair.

Moab on Easter Weekend

Alan's family has a tradition of going to Moab on Easter Weekend. This came about for two reasons:

1. Jeep Safari

2. Jean's spring break (Jean is Al's sister)

Our land cruiser broke 2 years ago and we haven't fixed it since. So we have not been Jeeping since Easter 2007. I think the picture below is the "notorious" obstical that broke the front axel...
We have started going down and riding mountain bikes more the last year. Granted, Al and I are not in that great of shape and each time we go down to Moab with his sister and her husband, we feel even more out of shape! Jean and Kent are totally athletic and they kick our butts in that department 6 ways from Sunday. We had a great time (despite our lack of physical abilities!). One day, we biked on these trails that meander through downtown Moab.

Here is Kent (Jean's Husband) and Seirra (their daughter) on a BMX bike course:
Seirra was laughing and squeeling like crazy! It was so dang cute! You can see her smiling below. You can see the group of us biking downtown. Starting from front to back: Skyler, Kent, Seirra, me and Jean. Alan is taking the picture. We ended up in this awesome park that had all these musical instruments they had created. Al groovin on the bongos. Alan playing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star



The second day we went on a ride called Klondike bluffs. It is about a 7 mile ride with some slick rock that even novices like me could do. :)

Here is Jean, Kent, and Seirra:
Al and I after the steep climb... View from the top:

Alan climbed out to the farthest peek and took some awesome photos!