Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Fall 2012

As I mentioned before, I am not attending BYU right now so many of you are probably wondering why I am heading back down to Utah. The answer is rather simple, it is home. I love Alaska and my family but I do not want to live in Alaska permanently; this was made more obvious when I came back this summer. I love Alaska, there are a lot of happy/fun memories here but it is about time for me to be moving on I think.

When I booked my return ticket to Utah, it was with the intention of just working while I tried to figure out what it was I wanted to do with my future. I had been toying with the idea of technical schools to become a Dental Assistant, however some were really expensive. I didn't want to spend all that money and decide that I still wanted to go back to school to get a bachelors in something else. So I decided that I would just take some time to contemplate what I wanted to do and in the meantime I would work.

I began looking for some jobs on KSL.com (classifieds for UT, ID, NV, AZ, etc.) when I stumbled across an ad for a Dental Assisting school. I began to look more into it and found out that they offered a 12 week course for Dental Assisting. By the end of the 12 week period you were state certified in Radiology, received a certificate of completetion, and they would try help you get a job with a dental office. The best part of this. . .the cost is $3000.00. I checked the schedule and realized that I would be missing part of this semester, so I sent an email to the school asking when their next available class was.

They emailed me back and stated they would be willing to help me catch up if I wanted to sign up for the class that starts the end of September, if not then I would have to wait until January for their next class; I decided to enroll in Fall semester. So I will be working part time and going to school for Dental Assisting as well.

I am very excited with this opportunity; the job market for Dental Assistants is really good, even in the Utah area. Next Fall, I am hoping to re-enroll at BYU to get my bachelors (in what I still am not sure) however I will be most likely be going part time and working full time as a Dental Assistant.

I have also applied for the Administrator over the Training Programs with HAP Alaska-Yukon in Provo, Utah. I will find out by the end of the month if I got the position; if I do, then I will have to re-evaluate what I want to do come winter for work. More to come on that! There are many more changes to come in my life, and I cannot wait to share them with you all.

Love,

Ashlyn

Fishing Trip

In June I took my annual trip to Homer to see my family, and Daniel tagged along too. We left early on Saturday morning so that we could have time to stop in Anchorage and do some shopping (yes, even Daniel needed to go shopping for some much needed things) and then get down to Homer. While we were in Homer, Daniel stayed in my grandparents mobile trailer (and threatened within an inch of his life if he even thought about sneaking into the house to have a little rendezvous with me) with my little brother.

We were able to go out fishing for halibut and we even caught a couple of cod. For Daniel, I think this was especially fun, because as far as I know, he hasn't ever been deep sea fishing (I could be wrong though). We had our lines set up so that we had two hooks; on Daniel's last cast he caught a halibut on each hook. When we got home Daniel helped Daddy and Grandpa skin the fish, while I helped Mom and Grandma package the fish.
Daniel with all the Fish we caught
Seth's massive cod
The next day the weather was really bad for fishing, so I took Daniel and my siblings into Homer to go look around the Homer spit, the Visitors Center, and the beach.

While at the Spit we just looked around all the different little shops that were there; laughing at some of the little tourist gimmicks for sale. We then went to the Visitors Center; if you are ever in Homer you really need to go see the Visitors Center, it was BEAUTIFUL and very informative!



Seth and Leah with Wilfred T. Walrus
Daniel and I then took Seth and Leah out to lunch at a little Mexican resturant that had some really good food! When we got home, all of my extended family from the area came up for a BBQ. The house was little crowded so Daniel and I ended up going for a walk, we picked some wild-flowers for him to press and show his guests at work. All in all, I had a blast! I always love going down to Homer to see my family and go fishing; we always have a grand old time!

The Boyfriend

As I mentioned before, I have been seeing a boy for about 4 months. I could go on and on about how amazing he is, but I don't want to make you guys all sick. Instead I will tell you our story (no we aren't engaged or anything, but I've had a lot of people that have been asking me all kinds of questions about him).

I met Daniel very shortly having my knee surgery; he was roommates with a friend of mine that had worked in Alaska the previous summer. When I first met Daniel I thought he was a cocky jerk; I wasn't even planning on giving him the time of day. . .apparently my Heavenly Father had something else planned for me. Daniel and his roommate, Paul, tried to set me up on a date with one of our co-workers, Mitch (yes we ALL worked together). I thought he was a really nice guy, but I wasn't super interested. I had come up to Alaska to work, I was focused on preparing to serve a mission and had pretty much given up on guys all together. I began to spend a lot of time with Paul and therefore Daniel, they both kept pressuring me to go out with Mitch and I finally said yes.

Right before Mitch and I were to go out, my dad and I had gotten into a little bit of an arguement. Paul and Daniel knew something was bothering me and they both asked me what was going on. I broke down and told them both everything, about the fight, how frustrated I was with my knee, and how much I was struggling with decisions in my life. As I was getting out of the car to leave, Daniel told me that if I ever needed to talk, he was more than willing to listen; he felt that we had a lot more in common than either of us knew. It was then that I had realized that I had sorely misjudged Daniel and maybe needed to re-evaluate my opinion of him. As I thought back to all of our encounters I realized that he wasn't cocky (okay he is, but not as much as I had first thought), but rather just brutally honest. He does not care what other people think about him. I think that I liked Daniel from the beginning, I just didn't want to admit it.

By the time I went on the date with Mitch, I realized that I liked Daniel a lot more than as just a friend. To be honest, I didn't really even want to go on the date with Mitch, but I did anyways hoping that it might change my mind. Mitch and I did have fun, however I realized that I only liked him as a friend and wanted to leave it at that (thankfully he did too).

The next week we all went to see The Avengers (AMAZING). Before the movie, Daniel and I were waiting for some friends to come home so we could go inside, so we sat in the car and talked. I didn't feel like I had to guard myself from him, I could be open and honest with him. When I am with him, it becomes easier to not care what other people think, one of the many qualities that I love about him. Anyways, I opened up to him, and later on that evening he opened up to me. We knew that we like each other, but neither of us had come up here wanting to date; we planned on working and then going back to our lives in Utah. But as the days progressed we realized that we had to come to a decision. Our biggest concern was that if things did not work out between the two of us, we didn't want things to be awkward at work. We decided that we were going to go a whole week without any physical contact (no hugs, holding hands, cuddling, etc. We hadn't kissed yet). At the end of the week, if it felt right we decided we were going to jump in and give it a try.

That week was the hardest week of my life, and he knew it too. However, I made it pretty hard on him too (it's amazing the many ways girls can get a guys attention). But it quickly came to a close and we decided that we wanted to give this a try, so here we are four months later, happy as can be.

Now a little about Daniel:

Daniel is a twin; his favorite thing to tell people is that he has "An ugly looking clone running around" that looks just like him. He's about 6'3" with dark brown hair. He just turned 26 years old, is originally from Las Vegas, but lives in Provo right now while attending UVU. My mom joked with me that it's funny we both have been living in Provo for the past two years, but it took both of us working in Alaska to meet. I owe HAP Alaska-Yukon a lot! ;D Nothing is set in stone for the future, but we will see what it has to bring. Wish us luck!


Daniel came with me to Homer in June to go fishing.
P.S. Daniel can be an absolute sweetheart; he was originally supposed to be a highway driver (gone for a week or so at a time). He had overheard me telling my co-worker that I had always wanted a boyfriend to make me a Build-a-Bear, so when he was gone on a highway trip he went to the Anchorage 5th Ave. Mall and made me a Build-a-Bear. The bear's name is Daniel Jr. (Daniel dressed him in a little driver guide uniform too) and he even put a little voice box in it with him saying "I'm thinking about you and I'll be back soon." to make the separation a little easier. That ended up being his last highway trip of the season too, so now I have it for when he is in St. George and I am in Provo.

Knee Surgery

When I first went down to Utah last Fall, my second day of classes I was walking around campus and experienced a sharp pain in my knee, it didn't not go a way and became progressively worse no matter what I did. I went home for Christmas and got it looked at and found out that I would most likely have to have knee surgery to fix it, but we decided to wait. While in DisneyWorld my mom noticed just how much pain my knee was actually causing me, so we talked about it and came to the decision that I needed to come home earlier than I had anticipated to have the surgery. So a week after coming back from my fun vacations I was packed up and beginning another adventure to Alaska. I called my boss to see if I would be able to begin work early and have a flexible schedule around me knee and was all set.

When we met with the doctor he reconfirmed that I would have to have surgergy; the good news was that it wasn't as bad as we had been anticipating. He told me that my injury was typical of tall, skinny people (lucky me) and it wouldn't surprise him if it occurred in my other knee in the future as well. So we scheduled my surgery for that Thursday (oh the surgery was a Lateral Release). I arranged with my boss to have Friday off with the hopes of being back to work on Monday (that was not the case).

This wasn't my first rodeo, I had shoulder surgery my senior year of high school so I knew what to expect. I was a little nervous because when I had surgery last time I had a REALLY hard time holding down food for the next day. When I mentioned this to the doctor they prescribed me with a little patch behind my ear that kept the nausea at bay for the first couple of days (worked like a charm!!!) The surgery went well (the doctor checked my meniscus and said it looked really good) and I went home and slept all weekend long. Mom had taken work on on Friday. I went to physical therapy the next day (yes we immediately started physical therapy to prevent loss of motion in my knee).


Week after they removed the bandage, I bruise really easy from surgery (at least that's what the Doctor said)

The recovery process went really well, however I did make a little mistake. I was feeling so well and had thought that I was farther along in my recovery process that I decided to go and play volleyball (very lightly, without any intention of getting into it) but I forgot my little bit of a competitive streak. Daniel, we weren't dating at this point, served the ball and I missed it. Being the cocky person that I am, I told him to serve it to the same spot, he did and I went down to get it. As I squatted down, I felt this pop and felt a pain like none I've ever felt before or after and collapsed. I promptly got up and pretended that nothing was wrong and let everyone play. Then I left the gym to go out and bawl my little eyes out. Daniel noticed that I had left and came out to see if I was okay and realized that it was a lot worse than I had let on earlier. He got me some ice and sat there with me until I was able to walk (very slowly and very painfully). I didn't tell my mom right off the bat, I had pt the next day and it wasn't until I talked to her and realized that I could have really screwed my knee up that I decided to tell my mom. We had to keep an eye on my knee and if it swelled up too much we would have had to go to the hospital to have another surgery (bleh) Thankfully that was not the case and my knee began to heal. After six weeks I was completely back to normal and enjoying life.

I hadn't realized just how badly my knee was holding me back until I had got it fixed. I am so grateful that I was able to get it fixed and can now lead the active life that I am accustomed too. I feel truly blessed!

FloRiDa

For the longest time I used to only be able to say that the farthest east I have ever been was Utah, and the farthest south I have ever been was Los Angeles, California. Well after being surprised at Christmas with a trip to DisneyWorld with my family, I can now say that I have spanned the Unites States and the farthest east and south I have been is Florida. And boy was it MUGGY! I felt like I was breathing water, but of course I still loved it! I was able to spend time with my family in the happiest place on earth, as well as increase my beautiful tan!

Our first night in DisneyWorld we went to a fancy little resturant called Narcoossee's (my mom was able to get all our meals free when we went, so all we had to pay is tip! She's teaching me all the tricks of the trade to make family vacations affordable) where I had lobster for the first time! They definitely know how to do seafood in Florida (unlike Utah) and it was delectable.

The next day we spent the day in Animal Kingdom; it was so neat how they had the animals spread out throughout the park. Most of the animals we at the Safari ride, however in a few of the mini lakes there were monkey habitats like you would see in India! I was so cool; I don't remember what type of monkey they were, but if they were a tan color then they were female and if they were black then they were male. They definitely liked to put on a show for us when it was time to eat! We all loved it!

The second day we went to Hollywood Studios (Hollywood Tower of Terror and Rockin' Rollercoaster) and it was another thrilling, jam packed day. As we were waiting in line for the Rockin' Rollercoaster it actually began to rain (thankfully I had my hair up AND we were undercover at that point). Because we were there during sprink break, the lines were exceptionally long, but I had my phone to keep me occuppied :D Once we actually got inside, we were plenty occuppied looking at all the cool things around us:
Ceiling as we walked in

The walls

These were the doors; there were tiny marbles in a little grid (some little kids decided to get musical with them. . .they weren't very good though)

After the Rockin' Rollercoaster the boys decided to split off from the girls and we got to go and see Beauty and the Beast performed as a play. If you know me, then you know how much I love Beauty and the Beast (I could pretty much watch it on loop for forever and be really happy)

That night Daddy took the kids and mom and I went to go see Fantasmic. . .or so we thought. There was a huge rainstorm with a little bit of thunder so it ended up getting canceled. I begged mom to wait for the next one to see if that one would get canceled but she didn't (and it was not canceled) Instead we got to listen to Disney music and dance around in the rain. I was in heaven, all I need was a boy to give me a kiss in the rain (maybe next time).

Our third day was devoted to Epcot. It really is hard to put Epcot into words, by far it was my FAVORITE! The Garden festival was going on while we were there, so all around the park there were Disney character topiaries






The other really neat thing about Epcot is that the back half is an Explore the World theme; as you walk around different areas are made to look like a country. And in each country is the Disney characters that are from there. In France we had Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast; in Tokyo we had Car's from their second movie, and Germany we had Snow White. There were many other countries represented too. Here are some pictures of the architecture:


Canada (background)



Germany













In "Japan," they had a store where you could pick-a-pearl, so my mom got my sister and I necklace holders before we came to DisneyWorld and we went and picked a pearl for our necklace (mine was more of a brown in tone/color, I loved it!)



That evening my mom even arranged for us to go to a special Princess Dinner where we got to see Belle, Ariel, Aurora, and Snow White. The food was eh, but it was still totally worth it!

The next day we went to Magic Kingdom (AHHHHHHH) which is basically the same thing as DisneyLand. However the rides that they do have in common are still different, thus it is a new experience. I much preferred the Space Mountain in DisneyWorld to that of Disneyland, it was completely pitch black and you really did not have any idea where you would be going. The coolest thing is that when we went, we got to stay in the park until 3 AM (we could have kept going but they had to close sometime I guess). We went on the Tea Cup ride (I almost made my mom sick on it!)
My favorite thing about Magic Kingdom was getting to see the Castle all lit up and watching Wishes (they put pictures that have been taken that day up on the Castle with the cutest little song) I felt like a little Princess!

Anyways, that in a nutshell was my trip to DisneyWorld. Ohhh one of the major differences between Magic Kingdom and Disneyland is that there is no longer a Toon Town in the Magic Kingdom; they just opened up a land called New Fantasy land, it wasn't open when we went but it has opened since then.

Love you guys!

Trip to Arizona

So for those of you that don't know I am not attending BYU right now. I did not take my schooling seriously and have been put on to Academic Suspension until next Winter semester at least. There will be more to come on what my plans are for this Fall Semester in another post.

Due to not having school last semester, I was able to go and visit some family friends of mine in Arizona. It was a much needed vacation! I was there for about two and a half weeks, staying with the Momma Jo and Kaitlyn. While there I did so many fun things: I got to see Ciera and her two adorable children, go to the Pheonix zoo, watch Kaitlyn win state at a cheer competition, see my first rugby game, and I also got to meet the family of a good friend of mine. Oh and I forgot to mention the awesome weather while I was there; I was able to lay out and get a nice tan in February and March (being from AK that has NEVER happened to me before!)

Can I just say that Ciera has the cutest little kids?!?! I mean look at them!

They are just so precious! Reagan and Bryson's Mommy and Daddy LOVE basketball, so I know I shouldn't have been surprised to see Reagan pop the "It's TOO Easy" but I was. It actually about made my day to see her do that :D

The Pheonix zoo was INCREDIBLE! I was very happy to learn that Ciera didn't like reptiles either so we were able to avoid that part *PHEW* One of my favorite things there was seeing the Peacocks that just walked around like they owned the place. The were BEAUTIFUL!!!!

I think Ciera and the kids' favorite part was when I went to look at the Orangutan in the Monkey house, I walked straight into the glass. . .Now I know how the Magpies feel on the Windex commercials! It was quite comical.

Unfortunately I forgot to get pictures from when I met the Willett family, so hopefully I can paint a good enough picture with words. Before I left for Arizona, I was chatting with my friend Jason telling him that I was contemplating going on a mission in another year and a half but wasn't too sure; my mom was/is very supportive of it but my dad wasn't so I was a little confused on what to do. When I mentioned this to Jason, he told me that while I was in Arizona I should get in touch with his sister that had just gotten back from her mission a few months before. . .so I did! And I am so glad that I did! Melanie was such a wonderful person to meet; the stories from her mission were incredible and reaffirmed that should I chose to go on a mission I would be blessed! I was also able to go to dinner at the Melanies house and her family was so inviting, I felt so at home there. We even got to watch some family videos of the Willet children as they were growing up (I still haven't let Jason live that down!)

My time in Arizona made me realize that I definitely want to live in a warmer climate; it was like Heaven on Earth! But all good things must come to an end, so I packed my bags and headed off to my next adventure; FLORIDA!

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Tis the Season of Change

Hello everyone!

I apologize for the lack of posts since moving back to Alaska. Things have been crazy; I have been working a lot of hours, I have had to learn how to juggle a job, my family, and a boyfriend (yes you read that correctly, after a hiatus of being single for more than I year I started dating a boy about 4 months ago, more to follow on him :)

As I am sure you noticed, my blog has undergone some changes and it will continue to do so for the next little while. The biggest change is that all my past posts are GONE! When I first began this blog it was the for the intention of keeping my family and friends updated on what was going on in my life; it helped me keep them updated no matter where I went or where they were. Then it became more of a place for me to put my notes from church. And that is what a majority of my posts have been about since then. I have decided to change that and have a seperate blog for that and have this blog again become my "What is Happening in my Life" blog.

The old posts and any new posts for spiritual matters, notes, etc. can be found on at here: http://ldssimplicity.blogspot.com/

I haven't had a chance to spruce up this blog yet so bare with me; between the two of them I think I will be a bit busy haha.

Anyways, there will be more posts to come on what has been going on in the good old AK while I've been here and the changes that are going to be occuring in the next few weeks!

Miss you all!

Ashlyn