Prairie Home Companion

Yesterday to celebrate the 4th of July I went to Avon, MN. Many of you may believe that this is the home of the famous make-up, but I am here to tell you that as far as I know it is not. It was a very small town northwest of the Twin Cities. There I had the joy of watching and listening to a live, free showing of A Prairie Home Companion. It was great! I have been told that tickets are hard to come by so it was amazing to have the experience for free. I went with 2 friends who I met through people in my ward. I love activities that allow you to sit outside on a blanket. Yeah!

Conundrums of Single Adulthood

It is an officially clear to me that people become better at relationship between people of the opposite sex as they get older. I let a friend of mine con me into attending the 30+ LDS single adult conference this past weekend. The pressure was completely off me because I was there without any intentions. I was happy to obverse....as well as look at the scenery on the St. Crouix River Cruise, attend the temple, and listen to fireside speakers. I was so painful to observe the adults try to converse with one another. Most of the individuals were between 40-60. All I can say is heaven forbid that I stay single that long. I don't want to be attending those types of activities for that many years.

Demolition Derby

This weekend I attended my first Demolition Derby. I was totally excited! I thought it was the best. Who knew that watching a bunch of cars crash into one another could be so captivating. I got mud flung at me more than once. There are many more fairs left in the season so I just might be attending another this year.

Backpacking and Climate Changes

Last weekend I went backpacking and I had a blast. Bad news was that we got a late start to the trail head. I went with the girl that works in the office next to me and both of us finished work and got out of Minneapolis at 4:30 pm. We got to the trail head at 11 pm (we could not find it in all of the fog). While we were driving we were contemplating what we were going to do...we decided to just go for it. We hiked in and found our site at 1 am. We had a lot of fun setting up camp in the dark. We slept until 9:30 am and then we hiked out taking a different route. We sat with our legs in the river until were were poured on my the rain. It was like taking a shower with your clothes on. It was a great weekend.

My ward here does a lot of missionary work. Since I moved into the ward we have had 5 baptisms. The last one on Sunday. They have them right before church and I went this week it was very good.

I has started to get muggy here and I have no air conditioning. I wake up from sleeping feeling like I am covered in sweat. I am learning to appreciate the dry dessert weather. I did purchase a fan yesterday which improved last nights sleep.

Another Busy Week

It started last week with going to Missouri with the Uptown YSA Ward. We left on Thursday at 7 pm to Missouri. The bus was full and it was a lot of fun to ride with everyone. We drove until about 2:30 am and got to Kansas City, MO. We stayed in a Sheraton Hotel. I was told that each room cost about $50 and we had 3-4 people per room. I had two roommates and we had a good time.

Over the next couple of days we went to Liberty Jail, Independence, Farr West, Adam-ondi-Ahman, the Fish River (Zion's Camp), and a multi-stake activity in Kansas City. We had a great time and I got to know a lot of new people.

Monday I got to fly kites at FHE. Tuesday I ate dinner at Hell's Kitchen. I assume it is the reason behind the t.v. show. All I can say is that it was good food and I enjoyed the Sea Bass. I am trying all kinds of new fish (I had Walleye in Duluth). Then I went and saw Phantom of the Opera. It was great! I had never seen Phantom before. The next night I was invited to a free Twins baseball game. We sat in the 13th row, which were fabulous seats I could definitely see all of the players. I was a very dull game against the Cleveland Indians which we lost 1-10, but it was all about the experience. I took Thursday off to rest because after I got home from the game I had to do laundry ( I did not get to bed until 1 am). Friday night I went with my ward to a St. Paul Saints baseball game. All I have to say is that minor league baseball games are much more fun to watch. Lots of activity going on everywhere.

Work is getting busier everyday. Each day I figure out more and more what my job entails. I had to write a proposal on Friday that went to all of the Cardiologist and the surgeon about exactly what my role will be on the pediatrics floor. It was actually pretty intimidating for me to write. I was told that they will rip it all to shreds. I will find out what they thought this week. The new residents start on the 24th of June so we are trying to make all of the new changes as they are starting so that they will not know anything different. I have lots to learn as a new nurse practitioner, but so far I love the job and like that I have so much to learn. It is never boring.

P.S. Thanks for the letter Dad...I always enjoy your writing even if it is all fluff.