Pictures-- Things We've Been Up To

The reservoir is about a 15-minute drive from home. You can see the city buildings peeking over the trees in the far background!

Another wider view of the Loch Raven. Such a nice day out there!

Micah looking sharp in his sunglasses and motorcycle jacket! There were stink bugs crawling all over this railing. Yuck! Micah decided to start flicking them off to their death in the water, but they just flew away to some location where they wouldn't be tormented.

Happy after a quick motorcycle ride up to Loch Raven Reservoir.

Here I am sporting my new skirt! I made it long and with pockets so I can get down on the floor and play with the kids in nursery more comfortably, and keep things like chapstick close-at-hand!

A sneak-peek of Micah studying for his anatomy test... 2nd one! In about 3 more weeks he will take the final and be done with this...finally!

Update

Well, I started working the evening shift at Sinai Hospital lab this week. My shift is 3-11:30, which means I can sleep in (yay!) and still have time to do important things like laundry and housework before heading off to work. It is a really quiet shift, and I really think I'm going to get a lot of reading done. In the last two days I've read about 300 pages of a book, so I might just have to start a list of suggested reading that I need to catch up on, and stop by the library... weekly.

I also started another blog so I can share and get ideas for meals to make. I feel like I just make the same few dishes. So, if you have any good ideas visit my other blog (girlyrecipes.blogspot.com) and let me know!

Micah and I are making some plans for our anniversary. It's annoying that it falls on a Sunday right before Micah's final for anatomy, so we're going to take a vacation the next weekend, as long as I get work off. Niagara Falls is fairly inexpensive in November, probably since it's freezing cold, but we mostly just need to get away for a few days and relax. I'm pretty excited, I'll give more details after we actually go, and some pictures.

We got a new comfortable Mustang seat on the motorcycle. It rides great! We have yet to take a long ride, but it was nice when we went to Chili's for dinner that night.

We've been looking around for places to go see once Micah is out of his dificult anatomy class. I'll write more when we have more adventures.

Orioles Game and Other Stuff

As you can see in the pictures, Micah and I went to an Orioles Game on Friday, August 20. They lost 2-0, but we still had fun. We got the tickets through our ward, so we knew some of the people sitting around us, and got to know some throughout the night. There were so many missionaries there! I heard from someone that it was the whole zone. It was cool to see them mingling with the crowds, handing out pass-along cards and inviting people to hear a message. We took the light-rail down to the game and back, which was good, except waiting for a train afterward was a hassle. It was a warm night, but luckily not TOO humid. Still, I was stickier than I like to be. I took one of the pictures with Micah's school in the background behind him. Most things here are clustered around the Harbor, and then it thins out as you go farther outward. So you can see a lot of the tall buildings above the stadium.

I have been training still at work. I have a couple more weeks until I go to evening shift, which is what I signed up for. I feel like I am learning everything quickly. It helps that I know how to pull smears for hematology already. I was told that some people have to train doing that for almost a whole day! Next week I will train on Differentials, which should be a piece of cake, since I have a year of experience in that. I can't believe how few Sed Rate tests they do here. It is a little slower overall from what I'm used to, but in that area in particular, it's very different.

Well, Micah started school, and is liking it. He really likes cutting up the cadavers, so that's nice for him. I watched part of a video on some dissection, and it was too gross. At least he enjoys it! It's probably better with a fresh body... which is what he will deal with in his future job. The texture is what gets me, even just watching it in a video.

We're both happy, and healthy, and enjoying the little everyday adventures we have to look forward to. We miss everyone back home!

Nursery Teachers

Micah and I got called to be teachers in the nursery at church! We were called last week, sustained in Sacrament Meeting today, then put in the nursery where the teachers hadn't shown up, before we got set apart! It was a little nerve-racking, to say the least. As some people know, I never really liked to babysit, and other family's little kids make me nervous for some reason. There are two nursery classes right now with about 15 kids in each, and we got called so they could make a third class. We had the younger class today, and all the kids were really cute. Some had a little bit harder time being there, and others were so easy to take care of for 2 hours. You know, that many kids is so challenging. Luckily we had some parents in there, but I felt like they weren't there to babysit the other kids, just to make it more comfortably for their own. Oh, and it was really hard to understand some of the kids. I forget that by 18 months some kids don't really talk much or really do too much on their own. I guess that's some of the stuff that age is still learning. How do you teach lessons to these little ones? I could barely keep the attention of my 7-year-old primary class for 5 minutes! Well, we have a lot to learn. I know Micah is nervous, too, but we accepted the call, and now we're gonna do our best!

Gettysburg National Military Park

Hey! We went to Gettysburg National Military Park yesterday (Saturday, August 14)!

We had a really good time. If anyone would like to go do this, we could probably go again. We bought the Auto Tour with a booklet, so we could drive around and listen to the history. It was really nice. Perfect weather too, we could get out and not sweat to death, and it wasn't raining! It was good for me to learn a little about the battles and some of the planning that went in to the Civil War, particularly in Gettysburg.

Scenic Drive

A little update:

Micah and I went on a scenic drive on the motorcycle up to a reservoir and watched the sunset the other day. It was really pretty, and there were geese everywhere. Then we kept driving and saw some huge mansions. They were pretty fun to see, and it was a really nice drive. On the way home we stopped to watch the fireflys in a field. You can't really see them in the picture, but it was really cool. We've had the opportunity to see them before, but this was crazy how many were all together, like glitter.

Micah finished his summer class and did well on his final. He only had to get a 70% on the test to get an A grade in the course, but his score was somewhere in the 90s.

I started my job this week. Orientation was a little difficult, since I've learned a lot about the usual stuff before. The really interesting part was when the Rabbi came to let us know what it's like to work in a Jewish hospital. I've never really had contact with a Jewish community before, so I took the opportunity to learn a little more about their culture and traditions. Then I got started training the last couple days in my department, which is the lab. I started in Coagulation and Blood Gas Analysis, which is surprisingly easy for me to pick up. Maybe because the machines are a little more simple and not so finnicky.

Tomorrow we plan to go to Gettysburg, so we'll probably get up a little earlier than a usual Saturday. We haven't been feeling so good lately, though so we'll see. I'm sure I'll blog about it when we go. That's about all we've been up to.

Oh! We met with the Bishop last week, and he encouraged us to reach out to some of the other new couples and families in our ward. We will really need to, since they asked us to serve as Nursery teachers, and we'll be so out of touch of what's going on in the Ward. Sometime soon, we need to make a trip down to the temple in Washington, DC. Probably sometime when we can spend the day there and do the visitor center thing, but hopefully before Micah's evil anatomy class takes over...

Omaha's Henry Doorley Zoo, July 9, 2010

Some Pictures from our time in Omaha. We went to the Henry-Doorley Zoo with Aunt Jenell and her kids Judy, Nicole and her boyfriend (I forgot his name at the moment), Melanie, and Susie. They were all so great for putting up with us wanting to go to the zoo, even though it was hot. I feel bad Paulina couldn't come with us since she had work. I miss those guys!

Edgar Allen Poe's Grave and Other News

So... not too much happening lately. Micah and I had this crazy idea for me to meet him after school and go see Edgar Allen Poe's grave today (it's about 2 blocks from where the University Medical Center is). It turned out to be one of the muggiest days ever. I was cheking the temperature before I took off on foot to the light rail station (about .7 miles from our apartment) and saw that it was about 80 degrees and 80% humidity. I decided to just take off and start walking, and didn't seem too bad until I stopped at the station. The little bit of wind I made walking was gone and the sweat beaded up on my forehead and under my eyes and all over really. It started dripping off me, and I had to keep wiping it off. I have NEVER sweated like that before...not even working out, and I WASN'T DOING ANYTHING!

Well, luckily the train was air conditioned, and I got nice and cooled down in the 15 minutes it took to get to my stop. Micah was there waiting for me, and we walked toward the Medical Center and he showed me around where the School of Medicine was, and where his classes will be.

Then we took a walk over to Westminster Hall and Burial Grounds where there is a monument for Poe, and then his grave is farther in near some of his family's plots. That place would be downright creepy in the dark with all the crumbling crypts and ivy-covered trees and mossy gravestones coming up everywhere, even in the middle of the paths... Well, we were sweating too much to stick around there, and of course didn't get any pictures of us there because of the sweat. So we took off to get some drinks and cool down inside the main lobby of the Medical Center. Inside was really cool. Air conditioned and neat to see. The original exterior of the building had at sometime been enclosed by add-ons. So in the lobby you can look all the way up to the ceiling (maybe 9 stories or so) which is all skylight. And then the previously exterior wall has cute window boxes on the windows. It was interesting.

After spending time in there we decided we could just go home and eat lunch. This time we weren't so fortunate with getting an air conditioned train car. The air conditioning did little to cool it down, and it must have frozen over or flooded by condensation since there were spots that dripped on the passengers. Then we had to walk in the sweaty heat again uphill to our apartment. Yuck again! I think I sweated about 5 gallons of sweat. Once we were back inside our air-conditioned building, it was MUCH better!

I think maybe we had better wait until cooler weather or later hours to get out and see more stuff. There's a lot of history here. Micah commented to me earlier how everything has some architectural significance and there are always signs and histories of the buildings saying how they have Egyptian influence or Greek-style pillars or whatever. We're not used to being around old buildings. The few in Utah aren't really used for anything but a museum, it seems... and they're not from Revolutionary War times... like some here.

Anyway, I hope I will have more adventures soon. At least I start work on Monday, so there will be more to write about soon. Oh! I put a hold on the third book of Hunger Games (Mockingjay) today at the library. Those books are SO good! We got addicted on our drive out here.

Drive in the Woods and Other News

The other day Micah and I took a drive on the motorcycle up I-83 North of Baltimore, which turned into Falls Road, and it wound through these really cool trees and old Colonial houses. There were new mansions out there too, but I was more impressed with the older architecture. There were places with fields where we saw deer, and Micah was pretty sure they weren't like the ones in Utah, because of some tail difference... anyway he counted about 30 of them on our drive. It was nice and cool under the trees, and the sun was setting. We had a really nice time out there. I looked at a map when we were back and I realized we had driven halfway to Pennsylvania! We originally were going to go to this place called Cylburn Arboretum that is a nice park near where we live, but it was about to close when we got there. I look forward to trying that place another time. It apparently has an old mansion and the area is basically a reserve for trees (hence, Arboretum).

The Arboretum is actually right up the street from the Sinai Hospital where I will be working, starting August 9th. I went and did a pre-employment physical and drug screen yesterday. The lady bruised me drawing my blood and placing a Tb test on my arm. She probably placed it wrong, but it's ok because I'm pretty sure I've never come in contact with Tuberculosis, other than in a lab setting, and that was all under a lot of protective equipment. The hospital is funded by a Jewish organization of some sort, and it's kind of interesting because they have some of their signs in English and Hebrew. They also have two cafeterias, one that is Kosher. I'm excited to start!

The weather this weekend is supposed to be pretty nice, so I hope we'll get out and maybe do some sight-seeing around Baltimore. I just have to remember to take the camera!

Since the Wedding

So, we haven't updated this like we should. Here's a quick overview of our life since the wedding:

Micah and I got married Oct. 31, 2009.

We went on a cruise to the Western Caribbean, which I can't remember all the stops but it included parts of Mexico, Grand Cayman, Belize, and I don't remember what else. It was a good time! We really enjoyed the Ruins of Tulum, some Mayan ruins on the edge of this cliff that drops off to a beach on the sea. Way pretty, but we got eaten alive by some bugs in the grass, and it poured rain on us.

After our honeymoon, we went home and moved everything into our apartment in Murray, UT.

We both continued to work at Intermountain Healthcare's Central Lab.

In January 2010, we went to Baltimore, MD for an interview for a Pathology Assistant program at University of Maryland in Baltimore (UMB) for Micah. While there, we visited Washington D.C.

We found out soon after that Micah had been accepted into the program to start Summer 2010.

We made preparations and said our goodbyes before we left on July 8, 2010 to move to Baltimore, MD. We just moved in to our apartment here, and Micah began his classes. He takes the light rail into downtown everyday and walks a short distance on either end of the ride, which is convenient. I have been interviewing for jobs and just accepted an offer at Sinai Hospital for an evening shift (3-11:30 pm) about 2 miles away from home. I look forward to having my employee health physical next week and beginning orientation and training soon.

Our apartment is nearly all set up. We just have lots of boxes to throw away, and a few things to organize.

I'd like to take an opportunity to invite anyone who would like to come visit. There are a lot of things to do around here, and in DC. A lot that is free. We have a futon for a couch, and an air mattress, so we can have a few people visit at a time.

Anyway, I think I covered a lot of what's happened with us. I'll try to keep up on writing here.

--Amanda