Experience with Blood

So, I used to give blood regularly with no problem. The nurses used to love my veins and could easily get it in the first shot. Once I even did it after September 11 with my friend, Marcy, and we raced (took about 5 minutes), grabbed some cookies and ran home (literally). Never felt a thing. A little over a year ago Scott and I went to give blood on BYU campus because he'd never done it before, but wanted to. He did a great job, but felt a little faint afterwards, especially after he saw the nurses twisting the needle into my arm because the blood wouldn't flow properly. It was slow moving and they had to move the needle around in my arm several times, but I finished fine and felt fine.

Now, as a side note, I've always felt like I should give because I'm type O neg, the universal doner. Anyone can take my blood (and those with O neg can only have O neg). Well, I recently got an email saying that they were in need of O neg blood. I went in today to give and well... it may not be again for a while. The same problem happened that after a little bit it slowed and then they twisted, after about 20 minutes I only had 70 grams left, then 60, then 50... then 10... then it stopped. They moved it around again and again to see if it would help. Nothing. So, when I had about 5 grams left to go, they had to take it out. Therefore, I gave the entire amount (minus a few grams) and they can't even use my blood! (They have to fill up the additional tubes in order to test it before they can use the bag) I felt fine (after 30 minutes of pressure on my arm though and squeezing the ball, I felt like my arm was going to fall off), but when she sat me up, everything got a little hazy. I didn't go completely out, but they laid me back down, put some cold packs on me and made me sit for another 30 min or so until I felt better. Sad story I know. I decided to come home from work (I have a lot of sick hours saved up) and lay in bed and watch a movie. Ahhh.

Settlers of Catan

So, Scott and I have been playing Settlers of Catan for a while. We first played the game a little over year ago with his sister, Katie, and brother-in-law, Wayne. They dominated us... which is to be expected, but we really liked it (the game, not being beat of course). I got Scott the game for Christmas 07 and the expansion pack, Seafarers, for his birthday in March last year.
We played a few times by ourselves and had fun with it. We shared the fun with Jen and Lance, and they ended up buying the game too. THEN, not too long ago we shared the game with our friends Greg and Aubrey (Greg is working towards dental school too and is taking a lot of the same classes, so they study a lot together). Now we are addicted and obsessed. :)

Not only do we play with them almost every week, but we have now created a points system that we keep track of from game to game. First one to 100 wins a prize. (We keep track of the total number of points we acquire each game and the one that wins the round gets an extra 3 points). We are crazy :) It's really fun though, we are learning not to be so competitive though and not get so uptight during the game :) It's really a learning experience!

Try it out... maybe you'll get hooked too.

It's been a while

So, I know it's been a while, but life has been busy! I'm taking a stats class this semester because I never took one before I graduated, but I thought it would be worthwhile. It's been pretty easy so far and we've almost covered the material for the first test!

Scott and I are also taking an Oil Painting class together! We have a lot of fun taking classes together, especially ones we get to interact in. I'll post pictures once we get something worth documenting :) This week we started on a "black and white" still life, really just looking at lighting *using raw umber (not black), and some white to create different tones of the same color. I love painting... but there are some crazy people in that class... enough said! One of the assignments in class is to look at a contemporary artist and get some "inspiration" from their work and make our own painting. I'm having a hard time getting "inspiration" without just copying the work. Any suggestions?

Happy 2009!!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I can't believe 2008 has already come and gone! We had a great Christmas here in Provo with Jen and Lance. We got to see the Nutcracker (previous blog), spend Christmas Eve together, and wake up to presents a plenty! We woke up at 5 am because Jen had to go into work. It was early but very fun!

On Christmas Eve we made a special ham dinner. Lance made the delicious ham, while Scott and I made potatoes and green bean casserole. Jen had made some rolls before work (she worked both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day). Scott and I also brought home the Christmas tree from work to borrow it for the effect. I think it worked out nicely. :)

Here is our dinner:
Preparation-


About to EAT-

After dinner, Jen retold our family tradition story: How Mrs. Claus Saved Christmas. We didn't have the story in front of us, so she retold it from memory including voices! After the funny story, we read the Christ story from Luke. It's always nice to remember the Savior on Christmas. Scott and I went to a Planetarium show a couple weeks ago where they talked about the Star of David and some theories behind it. They also speculated as to why we celebrate on December 25. What a special time that must have been for those who lived on the earth, and knew of the promises made. I hope to also keep Christ a part of Christmas. When we finished the story and talked a little about what we had learned, we each opened one present. Generally in my family we open all of the "family gifts" on Christmas Eve and then open "Santa" presents on Christmas morning. This way the gifts are somewhat separated. But, this year most of the presents came from family, so we decided to just open one. I wanted Scott to open one from me because I had gotten him a stocking! I'd wanted to get him one, but I couldn't ever find one I liked. Finally on Christmas Eve, I ran to Roberts to see what they had left. They had ONE stocking left... no others, I checked. I loved it!! He was so surprised. I didn't want Santa to pass him by! It was a Christmas Miracle! Here is him opening the stocking:

I opened a game called "Buzz Word" from my little brother, Christopher. Lance opened a new Wii game from Christopher and Jen opened, from Lance, new hair ribbons. We played Buzz Word (Jen and Lance won, but maybe I shouldn't mention that), and after Jen went to bed (she had to work)--Scott and Lance stayed up playing the Wii.
I just laid on the couch and fell asleep. Christmas morning came early! Scott got me a new NorthFace Apex jacket (which I love!), Smartwool socks for outdoor fun, the short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by F. Scott Fitzgerald (we went and saw the movie yesterday and LOVED it... it's nothing like the book though). It was a very successful morning :)
Thank you all for touching our lives in one way or another. I wish you the best year yet for 2009!