Ryan's Externship

Ryan is applying at four Audiology clinics for his fourth year externship (internship). We'll probably be moving in May or June of next year. Check out our poll and help us decide where we should go!

It's BACK!!!

After three weeks of no communication, a few false promises of getting it back, and coordinating work/school schedules... I have a car again. It looks almost brand new (from the front).

They ended up replacing the hood and the windshield. They fixed a bunch of dents on the roof that were caused by the hood flying up and hitting it. They repainted the hood and the roof. They matched it perfectly. I had a picture in my head of the hood being a different color then my car and the roof faded to gray. I was expecting the worst. Luckily, that wasn't the case. As an added bonus, they fixed some random plastic piece in my car that had been hanging down in front of the passenger seat for the last three years.

A special thanks go out to Richie & Angie for helping us out by giving me rides and loaning us your car! You guys are the best!!

Before

After

Just one problem... Now it's not starting right... anyone know how to get rid of a bad car curse?

Will it Ever End?

I am so frustrated. I'm so angry I just can't help but cry. I really want to punch something or throw something, but that would hurt me or something else. I am so sick of car problems. I honestly didn't think so many things could go wrong with cars in such a short period of time.

Around 4 weeks ago, Ryan's truck started having a hard time shifting and getting into gear. We took it in to get it checked out and after a few separate trips of it not performing right and more money then we had hoped, it got fixed. Perfect. It ran like a champ. We went on with our lives as usual. Car problems randomly happen, right? Not so much...

Two weeks ago, on Ryan's first day of school, he got into a fender bender. He was stopped at a red light and felt a big bump from behind. It turns out that some lady, who claims she doesn't know what happened, rammed into the guy behind Ryan, who rammed into our little truck. Luckily, no one was hurt, but the truck's bumper got pushed down. Thank goodness this lady had insurance and we don't have to pay for the repairs.

This was taken before the accident

At the beginning of this week, Ryan was using my car to transport family to the airport-all the way across town. All of a sudden, my car started making noises and smelling like something was burning. Ryan and our brother-in-law Troy figured it was the air conditioning. They turned off the air and it ran well after that. Pretty much, my air conditioning (which was fixed in July) blew out on them. Bye bye air conditioning.

Later the same day, I was driving home for lunch. I was going about 50-55 mph on one of the main roads here in town. I was only driving for a few minutes when the hood of my car popped open and flew back into my windshield. It made the loudest noise and scared me to death. I pulled over as quickly and as safely as possible. I was lucky enough to not have any cars around me when this happened. We had to tow my car down to an autobody shop and it will be there until next friday at the earliest.

This is the best shot. You can see the shattered windshield and the hood of my car all bent up

Now for the kicker... Last night Ryan picked me up from work. We went out to his car and it wouldn't start. It would not turn over at all. We tried jumping it, we tried popping the clutch and nothing worked. The battery was fine, it just would not start. We figured it was the starter. I had it towed to a mechanic this morning. I just recently got a call from the repair shop telling me it would cost almost $500 to fix the starter. I knew immediately that it does not cost that much to fix. I called around and did some research on what starters cost and called the mechanic back. He dropped the price to almost half of his original quote. Thank you very much. I was not in the mood to deal with him trying to cheat me out of my money. Especially after what has happened to us in the last month. Hopefully we'll get his car back soon. We need at least one car.

The sad thing is, right before my hood flew up, I told Ryan I was done paying for car issues... I should have bit my tongue.

Birthday

I would first like to dedicate this post to my good friend, Katie Glazier. Thanks for making me feel guilty and making me post. I will try to post more often for you Kate, just so you can blog stalk me. Just know that I'm expecting to see a blog from you someday soon...

It's true, I had a birthday this past Sunday. Pretty sure I'm not too excited to be 26. Actually, it scares me more then ever. I'm officially getting old. I'm closer to 30 than I've ever been. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Ryan did a great job trying to make it special. It was on a Sunday which is the worst day for a birthday. The fact that I had to work made it even worse. But after work and church were over, it was time for the birthday celebration to begin. It was a really fun night with way too many presents from Ryan (not that I'm complaining), a beautifully made layered cake (I didn't even help) and Richie, Angie and Mylie came over to enjoy it with us. Overall it was a success, but I don't want another birthday for a really long time.

Ode to Tucson

I know I haven't been very kind to Tucson since I moved here. It's just never quite felt like home to me and I know we're not here permanently. I think it's time for me to appreciate Tucson for the city it is. So here are a few things I like about Tucson...

1. Weather- When I told people I was moving here, the first thing I heard was "it's so hot down there." (Orem, Utah was the same temp as Tucson was last week). Here's the deal. Yes, it is hot. I have felt the heat. I won't deny that it's hot. But 8 months out of the year, it's perfect. If you can handle a few months of "hotness," it's worth those 8 months of bliss. I also have to say that once it gets to 100 degrees-it's hot. I'm sorry to say that I can't tell the difference between 100 and 110. It's just all around hot.

We also can't forget the fact that it is almost always sunny. We see blue skies about 95% of the year. Just think how fun it is to wake up to blue skies and knowing it's going to be a nice sun shiny day. Imagine that happening almost every single day. It's very uplifting. As an added bonus, we get to experience Monsoon Season. It comes in July/August and really cools down the summer heat. We get amazing thunderstorms at night that are accompanied by an enormous downpour. This makes it a little more humid, but not unbearable.

2. Wildlife- This category is a little surprising coming from me, seeing as how I don't love animals. However, we have some super fun wildlife down here. Ryan and I love to go for walks and see all the little creatures running around. We do have a lot of birds-not something I enjoy. We often see quail-which I had never seen before moving here. They sound like Tickle Me Elmo. It's too weird. I do love to see the lizards though. There are always a ton scurrying around and running away from you. When they get mad and they try to be intimidating, they do little push-ups. The other day, one poor lizard fell into the pool. I didn't know what to do and I tried to put my towel in the water for him to grab onto, but he wasn't having it. He got sucked into the drain on the side-I still feel bad about it. We just discovered a new little Gecko running around at night. They blend in so well with their surroundings that they look see-through. We also have a million cottontail rabbits running around. They are everywhere. The two coolest animals that we've seen around the apartment are roadrunners and coyotes. I haven't seen a roadrunner for a while, but they are cool looking birds. They might be on the birds I like list-which consists only of Penguins. Coyotes are even cooler. Whenever I drive home at night I search to see if I can spot one. One night we were driving down the street and one ran in front of the car with some sort of animal in it's mouth. I've seen a small pack run across the street in the morning on my way to work. It's so fun to experience.

3. Pools- The pools are open year round. They're heated in the winter and they're refreshing in the summer. It's so fun that the option to go swimming is always there. I especially love the spring time when it's the perfect temp and laying out isn't so unbearable. I also love going for a run, changing into my swimsuit and cooling off in the pool. It's so relaxing.

The one last thing I love about Tucson, is that we don't have to experience this...

This is Ryan and my brother Jeff cleaning up my parents' flooding bathroom at 2 AM.

Wanna See Where I'm From?

This last week we were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa visiting my family! It was a blast, but if you've been watching the news-it hasn't been too safe. It was declared a disaster area due to flooding. We were amazed by how high the waters were and the damage that it is causing. Luckily, the water is receding right now, but it is still such a tragedy. We took some pictures of downtown Cedar Rapids. We drove through it more than we should have while we were there, but we were able to get many pictures. Try to click on them to get a closer view.

This is downtown Cedar Rapids where

the Cedar River is

I've eaten at this DQ many a time-not so much anymore, do you notice the dumpster floating next to it?

If you look closely, you can see the DQ sign...that's how high the water was.

This is a random street we came across while trying to avoid the traffic on the partially closed freeway-this was a dead end too... If you look very very closely, you might be able to see a little stop sign on the right to judge how high the water was.

Luckily, my parents don't live close to the flooding and have been safe from it all. Thank you Heather for your concern. They've been getting millions of phone calls from friends and family to see if they are ok. They are just experiencing some inconveniences. They've been asked to conserve water and to limit shower usage, flushing and anything else requiring water.

Nauvoo Fun!

My brother and his wife recently adopted two children from Haiti. This past week, they were sealed to them in the Nauvoo temple. Ryan and I were able to go back to be a part of the sealing and to spend time with family. It was a great trip and it was so much fun to finally meet our new nephew Teancum Wilson Schofield. We had already met his sister Tabitha Rose a year earlier. Teancum is 5 or 6 years old and Tabi is 3. They are cute kids. Teancum has only been in the states for 6 months, but his English is great. He can understand and communicate very well. We fell in love with his instantly. Tabi had an unfortunate incident in the Haitian hospital when she was about 18 months. A room full of babies were give an adult dose of a tuberculosis drug. Tabitha was the only one to survive. She isn't at the developmental stage of a 3 year old, but she's a great addition to the family. Ryan and I were able to spend time with the family after the sealing. We went and toured parts of Nauvoo and got to know our nieces and nephews better.

It was such a great experience to be part of something so special. We're excited to have Teancum and Tabitha in the family and can't wait to spend time with the Boise Schofields again!