Chocolate Falls

It's been a decent week. I've had a fairly light patient load, but I was able to help out my coworker with some of her patients. It's raining every day, like the monsoons of old. And I love it. Thunder and lightning every day. What I did NOT love was the cricket that escaped into our apartment and did his mating calls every night at 2 am. 

In YW we did a family history night, which I feel like is traditionally boring. We ended up with only two girls there who actually had a lot of fun. We're working on figuring out how to incorporate this more often. 

Apparently this is taller than Niagra. 

Roger had told his family that I 'got lost' on the way to visit Chocolate Falls a few years back. What had really happened was I went a week too late and it wasn't flowing. Either way, Carol and Grandma and Hannah called me to invite me to go see it with them after work one day. So I did. 

I surprised Roger by shooting my bow every day. And then once I got my rhythm a bit more, we decided to mess around with the settings on my bow to make it better, but I think it's going to take some more adjusting. 

My pants should be done by the end of today. They are not what I wanted and there's a lot of things I'm made about, but I did learn some things too, so I guess it was worth it. Among other things, I learned that I hate pants and I hate making them even more. 

Roger went out with Carson and Will to try to find them an elk in Winslow this weekend (which apparently was a miserable time). Meanwhile, Becky and I scouted around in unit 10 (between Williams and the Grand Canyon) for elk for her hunt in a few weeks. We found lots of tracks and no animals in the actual unit. We got home just in time for Navajo tacos and Better Than Sex Cake (which I don't actually love). 

Another Week, Another Waffle

Now that we've finally cleaned out our closet, some of our YW activities involve actually using all of that stuff. We did an activity this week repainting some blocks of wood. They had a good idea, but we painted black over them and painted glow in the dark temples over top, which we thought was cooler. 

Felicia had a good boxing class this week. Our last combo was class-created and was boss. It was a L hook, R cross, R missed cross into a spinning backhand, side kick, switch stance jab and KO overhand. I'm excited for her to do a class with our YW coming up. 

Work this week (and last) has been crazy. It's like nobody wants to see me. Either they have to be discharged early and I have to work extra to squeeze that in or they don't want me to discharge them except at a certain day/time that is incredibly inconvenient for me. I just keep telling myself: you just gotta make it through this visit, then it'll be fine. Except it's every visit. 

Because of all that nonsense, I had a few long days at the start and a short Friday (despite all of our best efforts). I didn't do any crazy workouts the rest of the week because I'm still getting my energy back post-probiotic fiasco. But I did go run and do a sprint workout on Friday. It felt good but I hated it. And then I tried a light arm tempo workout adding in some overhead movements that still don't feel great with my shoulder issues. One day my body will work. Then it's over for all of you. 

I'm still working on fixing those pants I took a class to create. I have now taken apart and resewn these pants at least 10-12 times. We're getting closer. But sheesh, so many of my problems could have been nailed out in the template process and just were not. I am so frustrated with them, but committed to finishing. 

Roger had "one of the best hunts of his life" Saturday with Stu, who has an OTC archery tag. This year, they're capping it out at like 65 deer, so if you don't get one fast, your tag is null. So the deer are harder to find since everyone is in a frenzy about it. But despite the "best hunt" part, they came home unsuccessful. 

Pre vs Pro

I was in Cottonwood again - this time only 2 days and they've been pretty good about sticking to my requirements. The problems are 1) I'm training the new PT and don't have time to do my documentation during the day, and 2) all my Flag patients are going crazy. Everyone is leaving early and needs to be fit in and requires me to call 3 different parties (who don't communicate amongst themselves) to coordinate each visit - which led me to working 3 VERY full days. After a chat with my boss, she let me off the hook for later in the week and due to some cancellations, I had one patient on Friday. Honestly, I needed it. 

Wee Scotty did my last sewing class of this session on Tuesday. It was kind of a mess because the teacher just got back from a week in San Francisco and was frazzled, my other classmate missed days and hadn't made them up yet and was way behind, and people kept coming into the store (which is supposed to be closed). So all I did was sew on a zipper - which is actually a lot of work for a pair of jeans. I went home and finished putting them mostly together only to realize the waistband had not been factored into the pattern and now everything was sitting way too high and had to be totally redone. Mad. 

I went to a ward party that Rog wished he was at and I wished I wasn't. I chatted with some friends and some of my less active YW, so at least it was productive. Then I saw a lot of them again for a temple session and cleaning party the next night, which we invited Rog's parents too. It was fun to hang out and chat with them for a while. 

Here's the big update on my life. I had realized back in May that taking a probiotic instantly returned my hunger cues for the first time in 2 years, which was a huge relief. But probiotics are expensive, especially since buying them in gummy form is the only way I can consistently convince myself to take them. So I found a cheaper version and I bought 4 bottles of them and started taking them about 2 weeks. The problem is that they are not working. I tried doubling up and still nothing. And I realized that hunger wasn't the only thing they fixed, now that I've got a bunch of symptoms coming back. Here are a few things I've NOT been missing: 

• hanger instead of hunger & no desire to eat whatsoever
• extreme emotional lability
• skin rashes
• brain fog
• extreme fatigue (to the point where even holding my head up is really hard)
• less pooping (significantly)
• difficulty falling asleep and poor sleep quality

Long story short, we went out and splurged on my regular meds. What a crazy situation.

Moving out the Stickery House

It was a lazy week where I felt jet lagged and exhausted from not having a real break over the weekend. It was all I could do to go to boxing and basketball and go on a couple walks. Seriously. I was so tired. 

I did also force myself to sew pockets into my soon to be pants, which was my HW assignment for my class. I also had a YW activity making jewelry and using the stuff from our closet - and it's a good thing because we've had 2 of our LA girls who are finally coming back, so I want to keep the momentum.  

This was Monday afternoon in Flagstaff. 

Workwise, I started helping Cottonwood out again to fill in as their PT finished training. Hopefully a much shorter term deal than previously. I did have a list of conditions that must be met for me to go to Cottonwood, including but not limited to additional pay. I don't hate it, but the office isn't great still. We also had a mtg with our regional therapy director that I wasn't told about until the day before. It was pretty useless and we had our sales manager there who always makes me mad. 

Roger graduated! I think. He finished his last final on Tuesday so we're waiting for a diploma in the mail. Then I'll believe. But he's feeling really good about it and going hiking every day and work every night. 

We had planned to go to Page this weekend to hang out with Hannah. And then to hang out with Stu since Hannah wasn't going to come down. But on Friday, Becky & Brandt asked us to go to Prescott and help them move from their house. So I hitched a ride Friday night and slept in my old bed and Roger drove down early Saturday after hanging at the Deacon's "High Adventure" campout. 

You can't even see half the dishes she made. 

Brandt and Rog handled the heavy stuff. Becky bossed people around and answered questions. And I packed the whole house up, basically. We had great food the whole time. And the missionaries showed up for a bit. But I would've liked to have a few Hutchins-style workers there. 

We got back Sunday and had a hangout and family dinner at Grandma's house - and she put on the spread. It was amazing and needed. 

Beautiful Bodies

My sewing class this week started off scary and turned into a really good time. Basically, in making these pants, I'm trying to make them look and feel like actual pants with real pockets, etc. And I told my instructor that and she was like uhhh, we don't have time to do all of that! Yeet to her, because nobody else showed up that day and we cranked it out. One class to go sewing this all up and I've got to figure out the pockets on my own before then. 

Also Rog had an archery competition this weekend. 

The BYU-I Dance Alliance came to Flagstaff and did a free performance for both stakes. I wish they had advertised this better, because I feel like we could've gotten a much better turnout. BUT they advertised it as a bi-stake youth activity and anyone else could come if they wanted, so that's what we did for YW. And we had one of our LA girls show up for the first time with our 11y old who knows and is friends with most of them. She's a killer missionary. 

Shopping. 

The performance was actually way better than I thought it would be. My first favorite had some Mongolian mist aura music with a group of hunters and it eventually turns into them battling a dragon. My second favorite was Victorian era pseudo-vampiric dress and featured a girl who was slowly gaining more and more power over the other dancers - ending with her lounging in a throne made of their bodies. 10/10.

Shopping part 2. 

Home health is nice because it is flexible. As such, I moved up all my Friday patients to earlier in the week so that I could have an early start to Utah. It ended up working out really well, but there was a chance that I'd still have to see 1 patient on Friday, but it fell through so I was in the clear. I drove to Page on Thursday night and up to Provo on Friday morning. 

Shopping part 3. 

Partway up there, after many renegotiations, I met Lauren and some friends at Cove Fort. Which apparently is a fort that Hinckley's family built back in the day and features a cool wall with arrow slits (or gun slits I guess) and we could walk on top of the wall.  There were also rooms all inside the walls around a giant square. While peeping through the gun slits in the back wall, I spotted a garden. And when I mentioned it, some lady overheard and said I could take anything I wanted. She even brought me a grocery bag and helped me pick out some carrots, zucchinis, squashes, an onion, and various types of lettuce. #spiritualgifts

This is my best friend Lauren, have you met her?

Taking my snacks, I drove up to Provo to hang out with Hannah, Derek, and Trevor and chat about schemes and books and people that make us angry (part 147 and counting). Shannon made the best tomato soup I've ever had and I drove the rest of the way to Bluffdale to my friend Maddy's house to chill with her and her sister. 

My kind of professional development. 

The real reason I was in Utah was to complete a course on pelvic floor rehab back into Crossfit-style lifting. I love CEU classes. It's 20% evaluation, 40% most current literature, and 40% workout and let's make sure we can do this and teach it. We went bowling with the crew on Friday night and got ice cream for dinner and had a lot of fun and learned a lot as we broke up the lectures with active labs. I know physical therapy is true. 

Note that I have at least 20# more for this workout than anyone else. 
Thanks, Mads for the challenge.

Then I drove all the way back to Flagstaff, getting in before midnight and unhindered by the flooding.