For you, Face! :)

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own note, erase my answers, and enter yours. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real, nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You must put the first answer that comes to mind! You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name twice for the boy/girl name one

1. What is your name: Callie
2. A four Letter Word: call
3. A boy's Name: Cooper
4. A girl's Name: Claire
5. An occupation: CNA
6. A color: Cerulean (it is a color, by Crayola, it's blue and it was my favorite when I was little)
7. Something you wear: camisole
8. A food: cantalope
9. Something found in the bathroom: conditioner
10. A place: Couer d' alene
11. A reason for being late: caught a cold
12. Something you shout: Crap!
13. A movie title: Chicago (I know it was a play first but it's a movie now too)
14. Something you drink: Cozmopolatin
15. A musical group: Cranberries
16. An animal: cat


Ok so I tag Brittany, Alexis and Lisa

Praise the Lord!

I had a great night tonight. My church dedicated our new building and it was a party! We had a wonderful worship service with communion and then we played music and danced the rest of the night! Besides being so much fun it is so amazing to be a part of this church. My church has been meeting, growing, and surviving through the Grace of God for almost 20 years now. I became a part of it (much to my dismay at first) about 11 years ago and I'm so grateful for it. My church is truly my extended family. I was so overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude for all that I've been through with my church. I remember when we got the permission to meet in another church's fellowship hall, and that was pretty great. I remember when my dad was the head of the building committee and headed the building campaign to get our very own building to worship in. With the help of many people from many religions all around the Salt Lake Valley we got our building up. It's where I met some of my dearest friends while writing scriptures on the framing wood and concrete floor before they were covered and placing each and every stone on the outside with our very own hands. We've come so far from meeting in any building we could to having our own small building out in a field to now having our building with the sanctuary and the new building that is our fellowship hall (that isn't just a hallway) with lots of new rooms for the kids and youth. This church has come so far and has been such a blessing in my life and I'm truly honored and overjoyed to be a part of it. Praise the Lord!

Yay Green!

So as you all can see, I'm done with sappy V-Day and it's onto to awesome St. Patrick's Day. Don't get me wrong, I like Valentine's day just fine. In fact, we had a great V-day this year. My bro-in-law's awesome girlfriend and I made a delicious dindin for our guys! It was fun. We dipped strawberries and made pasta with a homemade alfredo and I made Max and I lobster tails and Brittany made Art halibut. And for dessert we had chocolate mousse pie! Yum. But as much fun as is was, it's not at the top of my list as far as my favorite holidays go; so bring on the green! :)

I know I was born to do this.

Had a really, really, really hard day at work last week.  Hardest day I may ever have in my career and I'm not even a nurse yet.  And it was an event that some nurses that have been doing nursing in Labor and Delivery for years have never experienced.  I couldn't be more grateful for the team that was on that night; the Doctors, RN's, etc.  I wish things had worked out differently but they didn't and we all have to accept that.  I pray that all the others that were there that night are coping and I pray for the family of the patient.  We don't have all the answers but this did bring me comfort in an odd way.  I have always said, even in my essays for nursing school apps, that even after the longest night of the hardest shift that I still want to come back to work for my next shift.  And guess what...  I still do.  Even after this I know in my soul that I was born to do this job and I still want to go back to work tomorrow night.  

Self-Shot Family Photos

Me and my awesome sis, Laura.  She's one of my best friends.

Three generations of strong women

My sis, mom and I.  And for some weird reason, it always ends up that I'm on mom's left and Laura's on mom's right every time we take a picture like this...

Me, my hubby, my gma, mom, Larry and Laura

Mom & her soon-to-be hubby, Larry

My sis, Laura, Max and I

So these are being posted a bit late but here they are. We decided to do some family pictures while my sis was in town for Christmas because we haven't had them done since before I got married. We tried to get a lady from our church, who does photography, to shoot them for us and then I would take the raw images and enhance them on my computer myself. But when I called her to make sure she was still coming, she didn't answer or call me back. So I decided to set up my tripod and try out my camera timer and shoot our family photos myself. And guess what... They turned out pretty good. So here are a few of the images; my family shoot that I shot. :)

A Historical Day!

I just wanted to say that I'm so excited that my birthday this year will go down in history. Not because it's my birthday, but because we'll be swearing in the first African American President! I am excited to see what Barak Obama is going to do with this country and I love that I'll be able to tell my kids and grandkids that I remember this day in history; and it's my birthday to boot! Best Birthday Ever! Go Obama!

My New Year's Resolution

So my New Year's Resolution is different than it has been in other years.  It's usually to get in shape and lose weight and I have a specific number I want to get to on the scale and all that.  This year I want to get my LIFE in shape.  I want to do more than be physically healthy.  I want to be healthy emotionally, spiritually, financially, physically etc.  I know I won't be able to accomplish all of this every day, but I'm taking it one day at a time.  I don't have specific numbers I need to get to or certain deadlines to meet.  I just want to focus on being the best me I can be every day.  I want to be better today than I was yesterday.  I want to take care of myself so I can  be a good wife, daughter, sister, friend, student, employee, etc.  I know this will take work but I'm up for the challenge.  I hope you all have come up with what you resolve to do this year, even if that means resolving to not set a specific, cliche resolution. ;)

Another New Year!

Well, yet another year of my life has flown by even faster than the last.  I'll be 23 in 10 days and I can honestly say that I am very happy with my life.  Tonight I went to the bridal show with my dad's fiance and I told her the same thing.  Everything is good right now.  Both of my parents are happily engaged, (yes, Mom and Larry got engaged on New Year's Eve, their two year anniversary and my dad is engaged to the Love of his life too, Mona) my sister is the happiest she's been in a long time and has a great boyfriend that adds to that happiness and Max and I are happy and healthy.  I am just so blessed.  There isn't anything I'd change.  Max is busy with school again and I'm getting my application together for nursing school hoping that THIS time I'll get in...  I'll be sure to post the results of my application at the end of March/beginning of April!  So keep your fingers crossed until then and check back! 

2008 Year-End Wrap Up

Hello all my dear friends and family.  A friend of mine gave me the terrific idea of not sending a printed Christmas letter this year.  Instead I've decided to post one on my blog to save paper and ink and this way, you all can read in a lot more detail, if you choose, about what happened this year.  Our year started out pretty uneventful.  But in March, Max's mother, Connie, was diagnosed with the most aggressive, least responsive to treatment breast cancer there is.  She immediately had an operation to remove the tumors and started Chemo-Therapy in April.  She's done many different kinds of chemo and just finished up 6 weeks of radiation last Tuesday and is doing great!  She's a trooper.  This summer we traveled up to Cd'a, Idaho for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary.  They had a vow-renewal ceremony that was very sweet.  Then it was off the to cabin for a week of just us and it was wonderful.  This fall we both went back to school for yet another semester.  I officially graduated with a General Education Associates of Science degree. (say that 10 times fast!)  So now, hopefully when I apply for nursing, yet again, in January, this Degree will give the leg-up I need to be accepted to WSU's fall program.  (And that's Weber for all you Washington Cougar fans) So keep your fingers crossed.  Max went back and began taking the classes he needs to become a high school History teacher.  He should be done sometime in 2011.  We both passed all our classes and are relived to have a small break before spring semester.  I also discovered my love for and skill of photography this year.  I accidentally got a job with Lifetouch Portrait Studios in April and I left them in August to pursue my own freelance photography.  I call myself Candids By Callie and there is a link to my website on my blog if you'd like to check out my work.  I have just fallen in love with it and it has kept my very busy even up until last weekend.  I've got some weddings booked for next year and I'm looking forward to them.  Just in October, Max and I moved back into our cute condo in Bountiful and it's wonderful to be home.  We also adopted two kitties.  Icabod and Binx and they are great.  We did have a recent misfortune of having to put to sleep our sweet puppy, Roxy, just this week.  She would have been two on Christmas Eve and we will miss her dearly.  We'll think of her often and know that she's in a better place now and we're so grateful for the time we did have with her.  

So there it is; our 2008 wrap-up.  Please let us know if you've got a blog we can follow to see what's happening with you.  We love you all and We wish you all Peace, Joy and Love this Holiday Season and in the New Year!

A Sad Goodbye...

Roxy snuggling with her dad after we came home from our week-long vacation to the lake cabin.  She didn't leave this spot for hours.  She was always so happy to see us when we came home.

Her First Vacation.  She was about 3 months old.

Her having a girls' night with me and some friends.

Me just being silly with her.  She was such a good girl.

Her with my sis.  She was a few months old and this is when she won over my sister and she said, "Oh ok, you can keep her and never have kids, I'll just be her aunt."

This was he night we brought her home.  I didn't put her down once that whole night.  I just snuggled with her.

Her sleeping with me.  Not just on top of the bed with me but literally WITH me, ON me, on my pillow or she'd sleep under the covers snuggled right next to me.

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile. I've been busy with finals and work these past few weeks and just this last week have been taking care of my broken puppy. Her name is Roxy and she would have been two years old next week. We took her to the vet on Monday and found out that they suspected she had a slipped disc in her spine. So they put her on an anti-inflammatories and pain killers hoping that if she took it easy for a few weeks that scar tissue would form and she'd be back to her normal self. That unfortunately wasn't the case. Yesterday she was stumbling around on her back legs like she didn't have control of them and when we took her in this morning she could barely stand on them. Also they discovered that she had lost her sight. So they figured this morning that there was something affecting her neurologically because of the blindness and numbness in her legs. The only way we could find out more of what was going on was to do a very expensive MRI and even then the Vet said that neurological disorders are very hard to reverse or fix so even if we did decide to do that and find out more certainly what was wrong that we might still not be able to fix her. So we had to make the devastating decision yet again, (we had to put our cat down just a year ago due to inoperable heart problems) to put her to sleep. I know that it was the right thing to do and the Vet assured us that we did everything right and that we were doing the right thing for her, but I'm struggling. I'm so glad that she's not suffering anymore but It's so sad to know that she won't be waiting at the door for me anymore. I won't have her leap into my arms and cover my face with kisses when I come home or bite and pull on my pants when I don't immediately scoop her up. She was like our first baby. We got her when she was just barely eight weeks old and got up with her at night when she cried. She slept with me all the time, day or night. And it wasn't enough to be on the bed with me, she had to be under the covers snuggled right up to me, always. I will miss that tremendously. I will miss her curly tail and floppy ears. She was the cutest chihuahua I've ever seen and she will be missed. Be at peace my sweet puppy, and know that I will love you and miss you always.