Singing Birds in December

As a young child, I vividly remember driving down Big Horn Avenue (in Sheridan, WY) with Melanie (my sister) and asking about birds singing when it was cloudy, and how you really don't hear them. She reminded me that birds usually tend to sing only when it is sunny outside (any scientific errors in this post are due to my lack of memory and/or science skills, not a reflection on my sister). I even remember her mentioning how solar eclipses can be kind of creepy because in the middle of a "sunny" day, the birds will just STOP SINGING.

Well, as I was fixing breakfast this morning, I noticed there were birds singing. Not having been within hearing ability of singing birds for a few months (with the sun rising so late, I am usually inside my school before the sun is really up enough to have birds begin communicating with one another before I am isolated inside) plus having many of the birds gone for the winter, it was quite a pleasant surprise.

I thought that would be the end, but as I have been catching-up on others' blogs, I have smiled quite a few times as I have heard that birds outside my door.

For those of you who may also have been "chirping birds" deprived, I found a little video that you can "listen" to. Hopefully it will bring a forgotten smile to your face as well.

The Actor and the Housewife

The Actor and the Housewife: A Novel by Shannon Hale

My rating: 5 of 5 stars I loved this book! Although I was unable to read it all in one day, I tried my best! I laughed, I cried, I called someone in another state to let her know that she HAS to read it. I thought the relationship between Becky and Felix was great. I wish that I could be as quick on my feet as Becky (i.e. Shannon Hale) and wonder what it would have been like to be around them. I rarely buy books new (or at least within a few months of them coming out) but I am in the process of buying this, for the sole purpose of lending it to others to read. LOVED IT!!! View all my reviews >>

Preston Dahlgren, R.N.

So I have been meaning to post this for a while, I just haven't had a chance. Who knew that summer vacation could be so busy!!

As you can see by the title, Pret passed the NCLEX and is officially a Registered Nurse. There is quite a story behind it, though.

So the minimum questions for the NCLEX is 75. If you only get 75 questions, you either bombed it, or passed it easily. Well, Pret got took three hours to take the 75 questions and then was kicked out of the test. He had felt better about it than the first time, but still wasn't sure, so he had no idea whether he had passed or failed. Needless to say, he was a little anxious to get the results.

He had taken the test and not passed in March, but his results were still posted on the testing site. He paid to get the results of this test (taken June 17th), but tried too early, so it gave him the failing results of the earlier test. He called to let me know that he hadn't passed (I was in Wyoming with my parents) and so we were all really bummed that night. He was able to hang out with and talk with a few friends to keep him occupied and distracted, but it was still a rough, depressing night (and I wasn't even there to scratch his back as he fell asleep. It was sad!) Our mothers were probably the most upset about it of all of us--my mom couldn't stop moping and his mom just didn't know what to think about things.

Brenda (Pret's mom) has a really good friend that became a RN about a year ago. She told Brenda about checking the State of Utah Professional Licensing department (DOPL) to see if he had an active license and trying to beat Pret to knowing the results of the test. Well, Brenda was awakened at 4:00 in the morning after he found out he hadn't passed and was prompted to go and check the DOPL sight just in case. When she checked, it showed that he had an active license as of the day before! She went running into their bedroom and woke up Pret's dad, Dan, and they decided they ought to let Pret know.

Well, we don't have a land-line and Pret turns his phone off to charge at night, so they had to drive over to our house and pound on the door/ring the door bell repeatedly (because we have an air conditioner going in our bedroom) to try to wake him up. They finally got him up and he was a little disoriented. They had printed off the page and showed him and I think he was in a state of shock. I had actually left my phone on so I could use the alarm, so I awoke at 4:30 to see my mother-in-law calling me. But when Pret answered, I was really confused. I asked why if everything was ok, and he replied, "Sort of." I then asked why he was calling from him mom's phone and he then proceeded to tell me the whole story. I was so shocked that I didn't really know what to say. We chatted for a bit and realized what had ended up happening with the "unofficial" results still being posted. It was amazing the difference in talking to him. He was a completely different person!

I was pretty tired, so I just kind of hung up and drifted back to sleep, but Pret was so hyper that he just went to the gym before he had to go to work. It is amazing what a difference having two different results make.

So Pret has now been working as a RN for almost a month. It has been a transition, but he is enjoying doing "real" work and more than anything, feeling like he is free to do what he wants and not feeling like he has to be studying all the time. We have enjoyed working on some projects together that we haven't had time to do since we moved into our place last summer. More than anything else, though, he has been working hard at de-bugging our house. We seem to continue to get infested with ants and now earwigs. We attribute the latter to all the rain we had at the beginning of the summer. What a pain!

I am still working on getting the pictures I took onto the computer. Please be patient!

A Mindbender and Thowing Things Out

For those of you who paid noticed the "puzzle" I posted at Christmas, you know that I really like word puzzles. Here is one that I found while going through some old things from high school. Although I have done a very good job of throwing out a lot of the things I still had in my old room, I couldn't just dump this one in the bag.

Here is an example of the questions and answers to this puzzle:
16 O. in a P. = 16 ounces in a pound

As before, I will post the answers in the comments section. Good luck!

1. 26 L. of the A.
2. 7 W. of the A. W.
3. 1001 A. N
4. 12 S. of the Z.
5. 54 C. in a D. (with the J's)
6. 9 P. in the S. S
7. 88 P. K
8. 12 S. on the A. F.
9. 32 D. F. at which W. F.
10. 18 H. on a G. C.
11. 90 D. in a R. A.
12. 200 D. for P. G. in M.
13. 8 S. on a S. S.
14. 3 B. M. (S. H. T. R.)
15. 4 Q. in a G.
16. 24 H. in a D.
17. 1 H. on a U.
18. 5 D. in a Z. C.
19. 57 H. V.
20. 11 P. on a F. T.
21. 1000 W. that a P. is W.
22. 29 D. in F. in a L. Y
23. 64 S. on a C.
24. 40 D. and N. of the G. F.

I have all the answers, but guarantee that I didn't come up with them on my own, so again, GOOD LUCK!

As for the cleaning-up, I (Megan) am home in Sheridan for a few days finally going through my old room and getting rid of my stuff. My mom has been using the room as her office for a few years, but I am ready to know that I have all the stuff that I will EVER want from it. It has been fun to re-live many memories, buy I am shocked at how much stuff I kept around for so long. It has been quite invigorating to throw old stuff away.

I have realized a few things as I have done this:

• I had wonderful growing-up and high school experiences with very supportive parents and siblings, crazy and clean friends, and wonderful teachers and church leaders
• I am very spoiled living in West Jordan with curb-side paper recycling
• You forget about a lot of things, both important and not-important, that can be remembered by just reading a short phrase or seeing an old picture
• I would rather take the time to read- and look-through things (old notes, programs, cards, etc.) now than keep them around for another 9 years thinking that I will look at them "some day"

I am glad that my parents have let me come home and tear into their time and living space and thankful for a husband who supports me in going on my own and applauds my "throwing things out."

I love Sheridan and Wyoming in general in June. Thanks to all the rain, everything is so beautiful! I love the smell, the sights, and the feel of being away from the city and in the wide open west. I will post some pictures that I took along the way next week (or the week after, depending on the time I have and the different pictures I take.) I can't wait to show them all.

Anniversary

April 14th was our 3rd Anniversary!  We can't believe it has been that long!  It seems longer, just because we have known/dated each other for so long, but then again, it doesn't seem like enough has passed for it to be three years.

Here is a quick synopsis of what has happened over the last three years:

April 2006--wedding

July 2006--trip to Wyoming for reception

August 2006--Megan ran 1/2 marathon in Provo, UT

September 2006--trip to the Czech Republic

January 2007--Pret started nursing school

April 2007--1st anniversary at Anniversary Inn

May 2007--Megan finished cross-stitch for mom (post&picture)

May 2007--Trip to Vegas and survival of The Desperado

August 2007--Pret passes first summer from hell in nursing school!

August 2007--become homeowners/slumlords as we buy our duplex (that is rented out)

August 2007--Trip to Yellowstone and Megan's 1/2 marathon in Logan, UT

September 2007--Megan starts teaching full-day kindergarten

December 2007--Megan first reads Twilight and the saga/addiction begins for the Dahlgrens (mom-in-law, grandma, aunts, etc.)

March 2008--Megan has sinus surgery and a week later we move in with Pret's parents

April 2008--we get Kate, our beautiful Llewelyn Setter puppy

April 2008--2nd anniversary in Lava Hot Spring, ID at Lionsgate Manor

June-July 2008--Megan begin teaches CORE Academy around the state and Pret begins his last summer of nursing school

July 2008--being make-over of our duplex preparing for our occupation in August

August 2008--we finally move in to our "first place" on Sugar Factory Rd. in West Jordan

November 2008--Megan sees Twilight with friends, and then again with friends as Pret was disappointed she saw it without him! :-)

December 2008--Pret finishes nursing school!!!!

January 2009--Pret takes Kate hunting in Arizona and she does awesome!

February 2009--Pret goes to Cancun with friends and Megan goes to North Carolina to see friends

March 2009--Megan and Pret take FIRST (there will be more!) cruise to the Bahamas and become addicted to Smoothie King and piña coladas

April 2009--3rd anniversary

So Pret had flowers sent to me at school (I totally was not expecting them as we had decided that the cruise and a nice dinner was more than enough money for us to have spent on each other).  The best part was, they ended up getting sent to Megan Roberts (he had sent me flowers from the same place before we were married, and I think they just had that name on file already), which really threw the office for a loop as none of the secretaries had known me as Megan Roberts and there are two Mrs. Roberts and another Megan, but none that went together.  They finally figured it out when I was the one who could read the card, which was written in Czech (ok, I honestly couldn't "read" it, but I have seen "I love you" in Czech enough to know what it said.)  It was really cute!  I had a huge smile on my face the rest of the day!  

Then, we had Michael and Shannon (Megan's sister and her husband) over for dinner of crab, fried chicken, yummy salad, sweet potato fries, and strawberry shortcake.  Their anniversary was on the 10th, but they had not been able to do anything special for it, and we love to hang out with them.  We ended up talking way past their kids' bedtimes, but it was wonderful!

Anyway, I just had to share the picture of the beautiful flowers and sweet gestures, and wonderful memories of the last few years.  I sure love my husband!  He does so much to support me and I know that we work well together as I support him through his endeavors as well.  Here's to many more years to come!

Vacations

So I realized that it has been way too long since we posted, but if you only knew how crazy life has been...  Plus, we are currently picking up a wireless signal from our new neighbors, so we actually have internet at home for the first time since we've been married.  Who knows how long it will last, but we are taking advantage of it for now.

Yes, the title of the post is correct, because we have separately and collectively been on 4 trips in the last two months.  Pret began the vacation spree by going hunting with Kate (our dog, for those who don't remember) and his dad and brothers in Arizona for a week the end of January.  I taught for the week and slept more than I have since who knows when...  Kate did an awesome job hunting and we look forward to more hunts with her in the future.

Then, as a birthday/graduation celebration, Pret went to Cancun for a week with some friends.  I opted not to go and save my vacation time for later.  While he was gone (getting lost, avoiding baracudas, and browning in the sun) I went to visit my friend, Lauren and her family in North Carolina.  She and Dallas had a beautiful baby girl, Lindley, the end of December, so it was fun to go and see her.  It was a pretty quick trip, especially because I was delayed in Chicago for an extra 4 hours because of a storm, so I didn't get to NC until about 11:30.  I was able to enjoy NC BBQ and relaxing times with friends.  Lauren and Dallas were wonderful hosts and I look forward to seeing Lindley again soon.  :-)

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, we have some new neighbors.  Sadly, our renters on the other half of our duplex had to move out of the state.  They were an adorable little family and we were just working up to trying to share the Gospel with them.  But we have found some new tenants who seem to be people who will take good care of it and help us out.  I just heard a lot of banging on the wall, so they must be hanging stuff up.

March 11-17 Pret and I went on our first vacation just the two of us.  We flew to Ft. Lauderdale and went to the beach there the next day.  That was wonderful to just be on the beach and enjoy the sun and the water.  Then, for those of you who know us (and specifically Pret) well, know that he has a hard time going a day without exercising and working-out.  So we found a Gold's Gym just a few miles from our motel and headed there for one great, but humidity-enduced sweaty workout! It did help us feel better about going on a cruise the next three days and eating whatever and how-much-ever we wanted.  

One of our friends used to live in the area, so he recommended our dining for the evening which consisted of Cuban cuisine at Padrino's and ice cream at Jaxson's.  

Right after this picture was taken, my ice cream got pushed up into my shirt--luckily I was able to get it soaking and all is well now.  

The next day, we slept in and then took a drive down the coast by Miami.  That almost cost us the cruise as we got stuck in traffic.  I had forgotten to look at the check-in time, and we were an hour and a half late.  We only made it on the boat (the Norwegian Sky) with about 15 minutes to spare.  

These pictures were taken as we were driving along the coast.  The sign on the back of the bus kept flashing "Call 911" but as we drove past, the driver did not seem to be in distress, so we didn't do anything.  It was kind of funny, though. 

We started the cruise by working out in the gym and watching the land disappear and the water change color from the treadmills.  That night, we enjoyed dinner from one of the more formal restaurants on the ship.  It was great (and kind of weird) to be able to walk out after eating and not have to pay the bill.  We called room service a little later and enjoyed some snacks in bed.  I think that was one of the highlights for Pret as he has always enjoyed room service!  

The next morning, we docked in Nassau, Bahamas.  
This is us waiting for the excursion to leave the dock.  Our boat seemed huge when we were right next to it!  We rode a catamaran to a little island and enjoyed some beautiful snorkeling.  I loved seeing the blue-green fish and Pret just enjoyed being in the water.  We looked through the village a little, but mainly just went back to the boat and chilled there for the afternoon.   We went to a great dance/music show that night and Pret ordered the first round of Piña Coladas.  Then, for some entertainment, they had their version of "The Newlywed Game."  We were worried that it would get a little vulgar, but it wasn't too bad.  The funniest part was one of the couples was LDS and from Utah (they said they were from Utah and we deduced the first part as they declined the free drinks to "loosen them up."  It was pretty enjoyable!  We played some ping-pong that night as well, and then fell asleep to movies in bed (after a second round of room service snacks).  

On Sunday, we had a day on the beach.  Pret snorkeled for about another two hours while I read and slept in the sun.  I didn't get into the water until the very end, but it sure felt nice.  We both got just a little burned that day, but overall we did really well in keeping the sunscreen on so we just got tanned and not burned.  

I'm not sure what is wrong with the color on these next pictures.  I am kind of bummed, though.

Here is our "hello" to everyone from the Bahamas!

This was the beach.  It was pretty crowded, but I found just enough room to lay out and soak up the sun!

Here were were on our way over to our island.  That's my Hunk of a Husband!

That night we just took our time getting ready again after our day in the sun, ate a late dinner, and spent some time just walking around the ship and enjoying one last night without any pressure to do anything.  We went back to the room with our final piña coladas and Pret watched TV while I finished up the book I had borrowed from the ship's library.  

In the morning we slept in, had our last breakfast in bed, and disembarked at about 10:00.  It was really quite sad to leave and we were planning all the future cruises we want to take as we waited in line to go through customs.  

As we were on our way to Miami on Friday, we happened to stop for a smoothie for Pret at a place called "Smoothie King."  Pret got a yummy piña colada one (can you tell what his favorite flavor is?) but sampled one called "The Hulk" and wouldn't stop talking about it the rest of the 20 minute drive to Miami.  He was already planning on going back (we were staying in the same area on Monday night) and said it would be the only thing that would be good about ending the cruise.   So after another good work-out at the gym, we headed back to the Smoothie King to get some smoothies.  I will admit, it was pretty good.  We enjoy Jamba Juice quite a bit, but Smoothie King does have it beat.  I was lamenting to a friend about it last week and she informed me that there is one a mere 20 minutes away (verses 2,000 miles), so now we just have to decide if and when it is worth the drive.

That night we ended our vacation with a dinner on the beach-front and a stroll down the beach.  I think of all the pictures I took, this one of Hollywood beach is my favorite.  We had our "dream-come-true" long walk on the beach at sunset and it was great.  Pret and I collected sea shells for me to bring back to my students.  (I just gave them each one today and they were pretty excited about it.)  

Afterwards, we couldn't decide whether we really wanted ice cream or not, so we decided to go back to Smoothie King for one last scrumptious taste!  It was delicious.

Our vacation ended with a long flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Denver and a scramble to find a ride home home when I realized that I had given the wrong time to our scheduled pick-up and they then couldn't do it.  (Thanks again, Michael, for coming to get us on such short notice!)

Wednesday it was back to work for me and back to studying for Pret.  Pretty depressing after all the relaxing.  Utah did welcome us back with 5 beautiful days of 60+ degree weather, but then shocked us with snow last night and today.  

Happenings

December started off with the Dahlgren Family Christmas party.  This was the first time that we had ALL been together since Chad left on his mission in January 2006.  It is always fun to get together with them and the opening of presents always ends in a paper-ball fight!  :-)  Lots of fun!

Then, as noted earlier, Pret passed his finals and was able to graduate.  This was taken after his graduation.  We don't have pictures together very often and I think this is a pretty cute one!  

He is now preparing for the NCLEX and will take that in February.  He has applied/interviewed for a few different jobs and will hopefully find out about one in the next couple weeks.  

His parents, Dan and Brenda, came to the graduation ceremony and survived!  It was pretty boring.   Our friend, Toffer, was there as well, and served as the photographer for this picture.  After this, we went out to eat at our new favorite Chinese place--Enjoy Chinese Food.  It is a classly little place right around the corner from our home.  

This is really a horrible picture of me, so don't look too closely.  The first part of the week of Christmas I surprised my sister, Melanie, in Vegas with a trip to visit her while Pret was hunting with his brother and father in Mesquite.  From the moment that she first saw me, my niece Lauren was glued to my hip when I was around her.  It was fun to spend time with the whole family.  I look so awful because I was in the middle of a nasty cold.  I can't complain too much because it was the first time I have been sick since my surgery and the resulting recovery in March/April.  

The saddest part of it was that just moments after this picture was taken, Lauren, in her attempt to run back in to go "potty" before our trip back up to Mesquite, hit her head on both cars and cut her cheek open and gave herself a pretty good goose-egg on her forehead.  It didn't result in stitches, but complicated the night just a little.  Thanks so much to Alan's kind-of sister-in-law for taking me up to Mesquite while Alan went to the ER and Melanie went to work.  

The rest of Christmas break was spent sleeping, sleeping, visiting with friends and playing games, eating junk, sleeping, and oh yeah, sleeping.  It was great!  I can't believe how much I slept over the break.  Pret and I really spent some good quality time over the break with each other and friends and family.  

Pret got be a raquetball raquet and we have both been playing a lot with friends and each other.  I thought I was getting better, but today Pret beat me 15-0, 15-6.  It was pretty pathetic, but still fun.  I guess I need to keep practicing!