Merry Christmas! I was thinking about putting this up on our house. What do you think?

The man who owns this house was ordered by the police to remove his decorations. He had several people frantically knocking on his door and calling 911 to come rescue the dummy. It was also reported that TWO cars drove into his yard in an effort to save the life of that mannequin.
It was also reported that an elderly lady managed to put the ladder against the house herself, and climbed it up to the fake person.

Dream Home

Today I needed a break from studying and so I was looking on the Internet for homes. I found this beauty.(amazing in person! 2 car garage, swimming pool, bedrooms, mountains...and a LOT OF WORK TO BE DONE) I always wanted a house that I could fix up from the inside. I would tell you more about it and the price, but then you would want it. I wish I was a paid nurse right now and this house would be ours. Does anyone have a lot of money that they could loan us for a few months?? (just kidding, unless you are serious and want to loan us money)

My Neighbor

Today I am extremely grateful for my neighbor who for the past year when ever it has snowed has personally taken his snow blower and snow blown the street, because the city of Provo is neglectful to our street. Yes you read correct, he snow blows the entire street that we drive on. Thank you Brother Gardner for your service, it brings a smile to my face when I see you out there.

(for the record this is not the actual picture of our street)

Thanksgiving Break

Joe and I were able to go to the BYU vs Utah game. We had such a blast at the game (thank goodness we won!) We had some extra tickets and so we decided that we should invite my brother JB who is a Utah man, and my brother Jeff who was in town for Thanksgiving. They both showed up in red with their Utah stadium blankets. It was great to go to the game with them. (They are the type of Ute fans that aren't annoying) We had a great time rushing the field when we won! 26-23!

I love the old school colors! Maybe they will bring them back...

For Thanksgiving we went up to Burley! One of the highlights of the trip was that we went shooting. I have never shot a gun before and am actually terrified of them. But after a little bit of a warm up I did pretty good at hitting the targets.

Another highlight of the trip is that we were able to go to a session at the new Twin Falls Temple. It is so pretty!

Happy Halloween!

Last night we were finally able to start celebrating Halloween! My friend Catherine who I grew up with and her husband Marcus put on a Halloween party every year! They do such a good job. this year they topped their party last year by making coffins and doing coffin races down the street! Joe and I won all the races we were in! And our costumes won the best costume award! Happy Halloween!

Tonight our ward had the trunk r treating and we had to go! I about died when I was Buzz and Woody and had to reunite the 3!

People of Walmart

It seems like whenever I go into Walmart I always see the weirdest people, come on you know the people I'm talking about. Well I found this website last night and lets just say was stuck on there for hours. Go there and see for yourself the people of walmart. It will make you happy the rest of the day!

Fall

Fall might possibly be one of my favorite seasons, and it wouldn't be complete without a trip to Lagoon for frightmares. Don't worry I didn't ride any rides, I'm not cleared to do that yet. Edward and Jacob? Is that you?

There is something about Lagoon that I can't get enough of!

One of my neighbors has a very large garden where he plants pumpkins. Then for family night before Halloween he invites everyone in the ward to come up and pick pumpkins. It was so much fun!

Joe's pumpkin is tall and skinny like he is

And yes we had to use clippers to clip them right off the vine, Celine had alot of fun with them

heart update

I had another doctors appointment today and my heart was in rhythm! Joe and I were smiling along with my doctor from ear to ear with this information. So the plan is to continue to monitor my heart and as long as my heart stays in rhythm for 3 months then I can start going off the medicine! This is the greatest news ever!!! My doctor is good, but this would not have been possible without prayers and support! Thanks for your prayers!

Preston Reunion

Yesterday Joes parents and his sister came down from Burley and we went up with them and Tom and Sam to Sundance. We rode the chairlift to the top to look at the pretty fall colors. It was so beautiful! After we went to the BYU football game. This was second football game at BYU ever! I even went there for 5 years! Joe and I got all sports passes and we have really great seats this season!

So this past week I've done alot of couch sitting and have become obsessed with this guy. Dr Oz.

He answeres most life pondering questions

Today he answered

Q:"Does breastfeeding cause your boobs to sag?"
A:"No, its the change in weight that makes them sag."

Q:"How long does it take to burn off a typical burger and fries combo walking on the treadmill?"

A: "2 hours 20 minutes"

I feel like he is the cliff notes for nursing school

Hospital Update

Hey all! Thanks for the prayers. Sarah went in this morning at a little before 8 and got out of her procedure at about 2. 6 hours of fun. She will get out of the hospital tomorrow as long as she isn't bleeding and her heart continues to stay in normal rhythm. That is right, her heart is in normal rhythm right now. So give prayers of gratitude that things went well with the ablation and continue to pray that her heart stays in normal rhythm.

One more try...

So on Friday morning I am going into the hospital to have the ablation done again. I'm really hoping that this one fixes everything! Please remember me in your prayers!

Good news....I am done with my 2nd to last semester of Nursing school! If all goes as planned I will graduate in January

Bear Lake

So a few weekends ago Joe and I headed up to Bear Lake for the Preston Family Reunion. We had such a blast with the whole family. Only a few people weren't able to go. Sam just got off the phone giving his Dad directions to our picture stop. Notice Renae is crying it was so funny. It was one of those you had to be there moments

Since Joe and I don't have any children we had lots of fun holding everyone children.

What would a trip to Bear Lake be without the Famous RASPBERRY shakes?

Everyone in the family made Tie-dye shirts. It was so fun!

Update

I haven't updated for a while about my heart so I thought I probably should.
A few weeks ago Joe and I were again at another Dr Apt. My doctor decided that the best thing for my heart would be to do another Ablation. We have it scheduled for Sept 18th. So if you can keep us in your prayers. We are really hoping this ablation works!

1st Day of School

Joe had his first day of Law School today! I felt like the proudest person ever as he was getting ready for school this morning. In the Richards Family our tradition was to take a picture in front of the house door on our first day of school, now Joe and I can carry on the tradition. I love you Joe! You are going to make the best lawyer!

You have to try this

So if you know me then you know that I have an obsession with jeans. I love jeans like a fat kid loves ice cream. I once counted them up and it was embarrassing.

I'm always looking for a good pair of jeans and I ran across these bad boys.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret.These jeans are made of the same designer denim that 7's, True Religion, Citizen etc. are made of, except they are made at the GAP price. (59.50-69.50)

When I would come home from work before these came out I would change right out of my GAP jeans. Now I stay in them and would sleep in them if Joe would let me. GAP completely redesigned their jeans and they don't sag in weird areas, they keep their shape and they don't shrink or stretch.

Seriously you will love them! I'm obsessed with them.

Amazing!!!

So yesterday I had a doctors appointment. They did an EKG and quickly found out I was still out of rhythm and so the decision was made to cardiovert me (shock my heart). So things quickly moved in to place and before I knew it they had an IV started within minutes.

Good news! They only cardioverted my heart once and it went into rhythm and it stayed in rhythm for another hour that I was still in the hospital. And this morning while I was listening to my heart with my stethoscope it was still in rhythm!!!

Thanks for alll the prayers! I know my doctor is good, but I know there is a higher power involved.

Please keep praying that my heart will stay in rhythm!

BYU LAW

Sarah and I will be staying in Provo for 3 more years! I got a call from the Dean of Admissions this morning offering me a place at BYU Law school!!

I look forward to having my heart broken for 3 more years by BYU football. I look forward to trying to win intramural championship T-shirts, and most of all not being away from my wife.

We will get to stay in our house. We are excited to stay in nursery and our activities committee calling. We are really excited about being around a lot of our friends and family! It looks like I'll get to be a Cougar again!

A little unexpected

So today I went in to the Doctor for a quick appointment. They told me to come fasting just in case they needed to do anything. I went expecting the worst to be another TEE with cardioversion. (and having them weigh me, I hate knowing that number)

This is how the conversation went

Doctor: "So it looks like you I won't be needing another TEE and cardioversion quite yet."
Me: "Really! That is GREAT! I was preparing myself for the worst, so this is great!"
Doctor: "Well...We will be changing up your medication to something stronger."
Me: "Perfect! What is it?"
Doctor: "Tikocyn, The bad news is, you will need to be in the hospital for 3 days so we can monitor you because the drug has some possibly dangerous side effects, and we will need to monitor you closely."
Me: "Oh"


So it looks like I'll be here for a while. Hopefully this drug treatment will be effective and my heart will cooperate. Please keep me in your prayers!

If it wasn't for Joe...

A few weekends ago we went camping with a big group of friends. I quickly realized that if it wasn't for Joe I would starve while camping. Which is weird because back at home he would starve if he didn't have me.


He does everything from chopping wood, to starting a fire, to setting up the tent.

Hospital Update

So Joe and I were finally able to leave the hospital Saturday evening. My heart was doing some crazy things and so they decided to cardiovert (shock) my heart to put it back in rhythm. That worked and I was able to leave the hospital with a heart that felt so good. Later that night my heart rate started to increase again and it has been high ever since, today it got a little higher. So the Doctor wants me to come in for some tests. The Doctor expected my heart rate to be a little high because they were agitating it for 6 hours during the procedure, but they don't really want it as high as it is.

I believe in the power of faith and prayer and would really appreciate if you could say some prayers for me. This Sunday is fast Sunday, so if you could include me in your fast I would really appreciate it.

Thanks for everyone's love and support, it has been really encouraging.

Hospital

So I haven't really told anyone because I have not wanted people to worry. During my 1/2 marathon in Moab I was really short of breath, my heart rate was out of control and I was really dizzy. I did not think anything of it, but just thought I was having an allergic reaction to the outside. When we got back in town the symptoms didn't go away, and my heart rate was always really high. After a month of it I couldn't take it anymore and started to go to see doctors to find out what was wrong with me.


It turned out that my heart was in atrial fibrillation where my atrium were trying to contract as fast as they could. The doctor started me on a bunch of medicine to see if that could correct the "A-fib", but the drugs did not stop it. About 2 weeks ago they shocked my heart to see if that would fix the problem, but my heart only stayed in rhythm for 10 minutes before it reverted back to A-fib. The doctors told me I would need an ablation.


We checked into the hospital yesterday where I had an MRI and a TEE to make sure that I was still okay to have the ablation procedure.


An ablation goes a little something like this. They put 2 catheters in near your groin and then another one in your neck. They wind the catheters up to your heart, and from there they map the heart and then start ablating (burning) different parts of the heart. The process is very long. My ablation took over 6 hours.


This morning I had the ablation and I am proud to say that it was a success! My heart it beating in normal rhythm for the time being! And we are just praying that it will stay in normal rhythm. Thanks Dr. Bunch for fixing my heart! Hopefully we will be able to leave tomorrow morning, so that I can rest at home! And now I think I want to be a cardiac nurse!

Stratosphere

We could not end our strip without stopping off in Las Vegas one more time to go and see the place where we got engaged. When we got engaged Joe surprised me by sending me on a scavenger hunt for him that ended with a surprise trip to Las Vegas where we went to the stratosphere and he proposed at the top after dinner. It was fun to walk down the strip together like we did after we got engaged and to relive that moment.

I love you Joe! I'm glad that we were able to have such a fun trip