Reflecting on 2014...Ready for 2015

2014 was a whirlwind but I feel like we are in a good place and are getting ready to start new chapters of our life. 

In 2014:

We moved back to Utah from North Dakota. 

We lived with my cousin and his wife in Ogden for a bit and then moved to Salt Lake and moved back in with my parents. It is very helpful because instead of paying stupid apartment rent (sorry I hate that) we are able to save our money. 

I started working at Intermountain again and I am doing cash posting and I really enjoy it and the people I work with. Ben is working at Kleinfelder and they've actually kept him working through the winter which we have never had happen before he also really enjoys his job and is hoping to get some new certifications this year to help him move up in the company.

We consolidated and bought and new Jeep and traded in our truck, car, and motorcycle. 

We both did our first triathlon.

I figured out school and started working on my pre-reqs for nursing school again. 

On December 26th my last living grandparent my grandma Parry (my dads mom) passed away. She will be greatly missed. I feel at such peace with her passing though because she was in a lot of pain before she passed, she hadn't eaten for 3 weeks, and she wasn't very coherent. My grandpa passed away in 2008 sort of unexpectedly and she has missed him terribly. You will be missed grandma!

She tricked me and told me we were sticking out our tongues!

Grandpa and Grandma in 2002 at Jason and Karlie's wedding.

Love and miss you grandma! 

Here's a few other pics from the year.

Halloween at my work. Josslyn came trick or treating.

Ugly sweater contest at work.

2015

Here's a little thing a wrote up about some of my goals/plans for 2015.

And a little side note we are expecting the arrival of the first nephew on the parry side this month!

Health

By January 31^st: down 10 lbs (around 226)

By July 31^st: meet goal weight of 165

Go to dentist every 6 months. Physical in July. Get feet and sinuses taken care of .

Practice yoga 2x a week.

Work on flexibility.

LIFT!!! 3x a week!

You have to run 100 days until the end of 2015. 
4 SIMPLE RULES FOR THIS CHALLENGE:
#1 NEVER GO 3 DAYS WITHOUT RUNNING
#2 RUN AT LEAST 3 DAYS A WEEK
#3 NEVER MISS A MONDAY
#4 NEVER GIVE UP!

Cut down on caffeine and soda.

Drink more tea and water.
Plan before eating out. Research healthy options.

                                

Cook more often at home. 

School

Don’t procrastinate stay on top of assignments.

Actually study EVERY DAY!

Apply for Nursing School (Get GPA up above 3.0)

Personal/Spiritual

Get and stay organized.

Travel

Learn/improve a new skill.

Find my spiritual side; Find a religion or practice that works for me.

Finish projects.

Write in Journal at least once a week.

Take more pictures.

Finance

Pay of Credit cards

Be in good position to buy a house.

$SAVE$

Think before buying.

Keep track of spending.

Bear Lake Brawl Triathlon

On Saturday I did my first sprint triathlon! It was an awesome experience and I cannot wait to do another one! We rented a cabin at Bear Lake and got a really good deal and I am SO happy we did! It had a full kitchen, a jetted tub, balconies it was perfect.

The view from the balcony in our bedroom.

On Friday night we went to a first timers triathlon meeting. They went over the course and what to expect and triathlon etiquette. I'm really glad we went. The temperature was going to be pretty cool the next morning so they weren't sure if they were going to delay the start time a bit. 

We woke up the next morning about 530 ate a muffin, took a caffeine pill,  got some hydration and headed out. The place where the triathlon was held was Rendezvous Beach. It was only about 15 minutes away from the cabin where we stayed so that was really nice. 

Once we arrived we went over and did the body marking. They do your race bib number on both of your arms and then your age on one calf and whether or not you were doing the sprint (S) or the olympic (O) on the other calf. 

It was freezing that morning!!! I put my wetsuit on early to keep warm.

 Then it was pretty much just waiting for our waves to start. Ben had decided not to swim. He hadn't really trained at all for the swim and didn't feel safe doing it. 

My parents had volunteered and they were in charge of the bike/transition area. We hung out with them for a bit and it was cool to see the really fast people come out from swimming and jump on their bikes. 

Around 8am I headed down to the water and they were getting wave 6 pink caps ready to go so I walked out to the starting point. About 10 minutes later we were off! The water actually wasn't bad and I'm really happy I had the wetsuit however, next time I'm going to get a different wetsuit because the one I rented was kind of bulky and I don't really think it was made for swimming but thats OK. I wasn't in this to win it (this time). My goal was to finish and be safe. The current was really strong and thats the one thing I regret and knew I would regret it was to train in open water because it is so different. We swam in a triangle. The 2nd leg of the swim was the hardest because you were swimming horizontally with the current and so it felt like I swam twice the distance because it kept dragging me out. Then I was done with the swim! Wahoo! I was feeling amazing!!! To get from the beach to the transition area though was about 1/8 mile that we had to walk. 

Me after the swim :)

Because Ben didn't swim he waited for me and helped me get my wetsuit off and change my shirt to get ready for the bike. He hopped on his bike then and was off and I was close behind but soon he was way ahead of me. The bike ride was awesome!! It was a gorgeous morning and a beautiful ride. I had special biking shorts on (I call them butt shorts) but I didn't feel like they were cushioning my behind at all. Other than that it felt great. I am glad I put a running jacket on though because I think it would have been too cold after the swim. 

As soon as I got off the bike to transition to the run my legs felt crazy! Another thing I regret is not  hydrating enough. I brought a little lunch box to put nutrition in and I did really well from the swim to the bike but from the bike to the run I took like a little sip of gatorade. I felt dehydrated the rest of the day and didn't pee for over 12 hours. My legs weren't necessarily tired it was just like they weren't in the mode of running they couldn't transition very well from biking to running. I finished strong though coming across the finish line and made sure to sprint! They gave me my medal and took my picture and Ben was there to greet me as well. We said bye to my parents and grabbed our papers with our unofficial results and headed back to the cabin to enjoy a relaxing rest of the day and a good soak in the jetted tub. 

It was such an amazing experience and so much fun! I'm excited to do more I'm already trying to decide on the next one to do. 

Our life as of today: 6.20.14

Here is just a quick rundown of what we are up to as of today:

I’m back working at Intermountain Healthcare the Lake Park Campus. I’m doing Cash Posting. In a nutshell I take care of payments that come from the insurance companies and post them to the patients accounts. Since I started I have only been working on Regence/Blue Cross Claims. I’ve been there for just over a month now and I am really enjoying it. I don’t do phone calls or anything like that. It is a ton of organization and numbers and I love it! My team is great! It is all women and we all get a long fantastic.

Ben’s job did not work out at Staker and Parson. He is now at Kleinfelder which is based out of Taylorsville. They seem to be really organized and on top of things and he seems to really enjoy his position there.

Up until this past weekend we were living in my cousins basement in Ogden however, with the job situation and just where we have ended up there really weren’t very good reasons to stay in Ogden plus the money and time it was costing us to commute. We are currently renting a room from my parents in Kearns. It seems to be working out really well. We would like to buy a house as soon as we feel we are in a good financial situation to do so.

I passed my Chem class last semester but not physiolocgy. I am taking physiology for summer semester and so far so good I am holding steady at a C and have hopes to get that up.

This Friday the (27^th) is our 5 year Anniversary!!! Crazy! With both of us starting new jobs we didn’t take any time off but luckily we will have the weekend to celebrate. Haven’t made any for sure plans yet but I’m sure we will do something fun.

Duke is doing well. He enjoys playing with the other dogs but is still very afraid of water in general however, sometimes he will run through the sprinkler. He no longer has to sleep on our bed or in the kennel at night and is able to just sleep on the floor on his bed.

And that’s our life as of today: June 23, 2014.

Back to Utah we go!

Ben's job interview in Williston was a joke but I kind of understand why it had to happen. The guy wanted to hire people who lived locally which is completely ridiculous because anyone who lives in Williston is out there because of a job. So basically he had no housing arrangements or plans we drove 7 hours for the interview that was 10 minutes. On the drive back home Ben called Staker and Parson and talked with them about a field tech position. The guy asked about pay Ben gave him a number and the guy said no problem. He called Ben the next day and offered him the job start date April 14th. I let my job know and they were awesome about it. They are even having a little goodbye party for me on Wednesday they are so sweet. So this weekend we are packing up as much as we possibly can I work Mon, Tues, Wed. My dad will be here Tues night. We will start driving Wednesday night Thursday morning. I have a job interview on Friday morning and have 2 tests for school to take this coming week! CRAZINESS! But what did you expect from us?! We are really excited and it's awesome the way things are falling into place so quickly. When I told my cousin and his wife we would be moving to Ogden where they also live they immediately offered for us to live in their basement until we get living arrangements figured out. They are amazing people and I'm actually really excited to spend time with them. Morgan, my lil sis, could not be happier and I am excited to be close to family again and close to Weber University where I am currently enrolled in school and would love to get into their nursing program. 

Small glimpse into my brain...

We have no idea what the hell we are doing! There I said it. It's been a stressful past weekish or so trying to figure out what we are doing. Ben was laid off for most of the winter then he was offered a job and that job sucked! They basically had it out for him before he even began. It was really ridiculous. So then we had a talk that went late into the night about moving back to Utah or even Arizona or somewhere besides North Dakota because really why are we even here? I started posting stuff for sale like crazy 1) so we didn't have to move it 2) to help pay for moving expenses. To add to all of this we are in the same amount if not more debt than when we moved up here and our biggest goal was to get out of debt moving up here where the pay is more and yada yada. Well then 1 week ago on Monday Ben got a call from a company in Williston,ND (3.5 hours away from Bismarck) they want to interview him and a guy is flying in from Maryland to do the interview. The interview is tomorrow. Here are some pro's and cons about this job though Pro: possibly very good money. Con:There is no where for me to live out there and if there was it would be ridiculously expensive. Pro: They can probably get Ben housing, best case scenario they can get a lil condo or something we can both live in out there. Con: if they don't then I have to stay in Bismarck all by myself and not see Ben for days on end. Pro: If it's good money we could pay off debt. Con: When we thought we were moving to Utah I applied for jobs in Utah at IHC and they could very possibly want to hire me soon. Which means we get our awesome insurance coverage back, plus IHC has their own nursing program, and it would either be in the Maternity unit or the ER which I would LOVE! In the midst of all this neither of us have a degree (I have my Associate's but it really doesn't help), Ben and I hate the winters up here in ND, when the hell are we supposed to be able to start a family and buy a house. UGH!!!! Yes I'm ranting and this is only a small glimpse into my brain. Thoughts,Comments are always greatly appreciated. 

In other news we went shooting on Sunday. Have a mentioned I love shooting the shotgun...Cause I do! I feel bad for Ben though because I really stink at throwing the clay pigeons. So I asked some people who were shooting near us to throw a few for him and then they let him shoot their semi-automatic shotgun...CrAzY but AwEsOmE! 

Utah Day 7

Friday was a really blah relaxing day. My parents had NAMI training all day. They are going to be instructors for some of the classes they hold. Morgan and Spencer had to go back to work. In the morning Jason,Karlie, and Josslyn went to breakfast with Karlie's family. Ben and I slept in, ate some food, took a nap then went to a fun lunch with my cousin Caleb and his wife Morgan. Caleb and I are pretty much the same age and have always been somewhat close I think and I absolutely adore his wife and we love to get together and chat. We went to a fun European style pizza place. I did not get one damn picture! GRR! Nothing not of the food of us...Nada! Then when we got home we took another nap. I know crazy. No idea why we were so tired. Then I worked on some more homework school is taking over my life but thats OK! I'm kicking butt! (I think). That evening we all met up at Cafe Rio for dinner. After dinner we went back to my parents house and just visited.

Joss and I (she is fake sleeping lil' stinker)

Me,Morgan, and Karlie

Josslyn loves Dukers and he loves her!

We left Saturday morning. The original plan was to leave around 6am but we never leave on time so after packing up and getting the oil changed on the car we finally left SLC at around 930am.