Mo-Tab Christmas Concert

Photo from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Facebook page

Before Christmas I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Concert with  special guests Santino Fantana and The Sesame Street Muppets.
My cousin Hilary was able to get several tickets and invited my brother Caleb, his girlfriend Emilie, my sister Samantha, and I to attend.  

Sam and I had awsome seats.  The closest to the stage I have ever sat.  (not that we were that close, but close enough for me.

After the show we did the customary walk through Temple Square and take pictures with the lights.  I love this picture of us.

Sam had no idea that this was how the Big Bird puppet worked so in case you ever wondered as well, here you go.

It was a very fun night and I wish all of you could have joined us.  My favorite part of the whole show was when The Count did the 12 Days of Christmas with the organist.  A-MAZE-ING!!!

Apple Swan

Today after watching a particularly interesting how to video on Youtube, Nathan felt motivated enough to try some edible art of his own.  We present to you Nathan's Apple Swan!

You can learn how yourselves below.

Happy Sunday!!!

Winner, Winner

One week ago our little blog reached 12,000 views and to celebrate this milestone I announced a contest.  To enter the contest all one had to do was to leave a comment on their favorite post from our blog.  Today one week later we have our winner, selected by random number generator from the number of comments our blog received.
The winning comment number was.....

Number 22!

The 22nd comment on my blog was left by sam00033445 from http://mylifeonemomentatatime.blogspot.com on the post Puppy cousins. Congratulations sam00033445!  Your prize is a night out with me (and Nathan) if you choose, at the restaurant of your choice our treat.  Please contact us to set up the time and date that would work best for you.

Happy Sunday!!!

I caught myself a leprechaun!

Nathan's nickname at work is Leprechaun and if you took a look at him you would know why.  Other than the absence of red hair he has the build and look of this Irish folklore character.  One of his co-workers recently took some time to give us all a good chuckle by photo-shopping Nathan's face onto a box of Lucky Charms.  

My New Job

The week of Thanksgiving I started working at my new job in Tooele.  I am now the receptionist at Health Care for Women; the office of Dr. Eldad Vered (pronounced like Jared, just with a V).
It has been a huge change from all of my duties as a Health Unit Coordinator at Intermountain Medical Center but I am loving it.
My main responsibilities are to answer the phones, check patients in and out of their appointments, schedule appointments and keeping the medical records up-to-date.  All of my previous years as a CNA and as a HUC in the medical field have made this transition a very easy one for me. (I just hope that my co-workers agree.)
I have began many new friendships with the other eight members of the full-time staff as well as starting to get to know many of our patients that we see sometimes once a week as they are getting closer to their delivery dates.


On December 1st of this year Dr. Vered opened Laser Aesthetics of Utah as a side practice in our office.  It is still very new but we are excited to now be offering laser hair removal, laser and chemical facials, and even SmartLipo to our patients and the surrounding community.

You can learn more about our office and the services that we provide in both Women's Health and Aesthetics on our Facebook page HERE, and our website HERE. (Laser Aesthetics website coming soon)

I highly recommend Dr. Vered and our Nurse Practitioner Sarah Johnson to anyone in need of an OBGYN in the Tooele valley and beyond.

Do you have any questions for me about my new job? Our office?  What color socks I am wearing today?  Or what I had for dinner?  Let me know, leave a comment and I will answer them.

Happy Tuesday!!!

Time for a contest!

Wow everyone,  Today we reached 12,000 page views.  That is amazing.  I want to thank you all for supporting our adoption dream and for reading what we have to share.
In honor of this milestone we are going to have a drawing for a prize.  To enter the drawing all you must do is leave a comment on your favorite post here on A Country Life for Us telling us why you like that particular post.  You have 120 posts to choose from.  The winner will be chosen by a random number generator that will correspond with the order your comment was submitted and will be notified in one week on Sunday December 14th.
May the odds ever be in your favor!

The Best Gift

I came across this video this week and it touched my heart, especially at this time while Nathan and I are still waiting and hoping for our own little miracle to find it way into our lives through the gift of adoption.

Happy Sunday!!!

The Tree is Up

Tis that time of year again for home decorating, present shopping, trimming the tree, sending out cards, listening to carols, and remembering our Savior.  This weekend I was able to start on some of these festivities.

Nathan helped by getting everything out of the attic and even putting the tree together one day while I was working.  That night I was able to spend some time 'fluffing' the branches and making it look like an actual tree.

Then to the fun part.  Unpacking all of the decorations and placing them in just the right place on the tree.

Of course I had Pandora radio playing throughout the whole house.  The channel of the evening was Pentatonix holiday music.  I highly recommend this group and this channel for all your listening pleasure.

Some of the ornements are old.  Such as this paper mache cowboy from Nathan's grandmother. 

Some are 'all natural'  If you look close you can see a set of deer antlers.

Some are new such as these that I found on KSL deals this year.

Some remind me of very special people I love.

And of course it is all topped by a beautiful star.  (The antlers in this picture are hung on wall behind the tree and not the tree its self)

All resulting in our own unique Christmas tree filled with memories old and new.

Great friend

My friend Megan wrote a sweet blog post about our adoption hopes on the blog that she shares with several of her friends called Life of Women an Inspirational Outlook. She asked for my permission to share our story when it was her turn to submit a post on what they call "good cause Wednesday"  I gladly gave it and I am so touched and humbled by the sweet words that she shared.
Megan and I became friends while working together at the hospital several years ago.  A short time later her life led her on several adventures including becoming a mother of three sweet angels of her own and living for at time in Germany while her husband was stationed there in the military.  Although we have not seen each other in person in over two years we keep in touch through facebook and a still think of her fondly and often as a true friend.
You can read Megan's post HERE.

Thank you Megan

Witchapalooza Fun

Each year we plan a girls night out at Gardner Village during October.  The whole place is decorated with a fun whimsical witch theme.   We spend the day playing, window shopping, and enjoying the fun activities happening all over the park.  Our favorite part is the dinner theater.  This years production was a witch themed musical/comedy spoof of 'you've got mail.'  We had such a fun night laughing and enjoying ourselves.  You can learn more at http://www.gardnervillage.com.

I can't believe it has been six years already

Six years ago today I married my best friend.  That day was the first of many many happy days together.  Here's to a couple million more!
I Love You Nathan

Where in the world

Many of you know that I work at a hospital, specifically I work on a trauma unit which means that we treat many people who have accidents or get hurt that you may read about in the news. Trauma is defined as: 'any serious injury to the body, often resulting from violence or an accident.'  Many of our patients have had very interesting stories of how they got hurt and ended up staying on our unit for a time.  

Some examples would include: bull riding, having their snowmobile run over them while working on it in their garage, getting bit by a lion, gored by a wildebeest, getting trampled by a cow during a cattle drive, "walking along minding their own business and three guys jumping out and stabbing them for no reason at all," and the random gun shot wound which seems to be the special right now because we have five of those this week.  Not to mention the run of the mill things like: car accidents, motorcycle accidents, falling off cliffs while hiking, skiing, snowboarding, and the senior citizens who trip and fall.

Because the hospital is located in the Salt Lake valley close to many ski resorts, crossroads of two major interstate highways, and just a pretty cool place to visit; we tend to treat many unfortunate people who get injured while on vacation.
In the fall of 2012 I came up with an idea that we should get a map to keep track of all the places that our patients come from.  My manager gave it her approval and we were able to purchase a large world map and pins to represent our patients.
About nine months later we purchased an additional United States map because we had so many patients from around the US that we were running out of space.

I did set up a few ground rules about pinning the map.   Any of our staff members are welcome to add a pin to the map if one of their patients is from out of state or country.  (We stopped pinning most of Utah early on because that is where the majority of our patients come from.)                                  A pin can be added if:  1. A patients home address is located outside of Utah. Or  2. They moved to the US less than five years ago, then we pin their location of origin.  

Over the last almost two years we have pinned over 200 different locations and the maps have become a great visual reminder of the care and commitment we strive to give everyone in need.  We truly are giving world class care.

Random pictures from the last few weeks



Nathan's sister Jennifer's new piglet



Nathan doing what he loves.  Playing in the dirt and getting paid for it



I'm working on another baby blanket for a friend



Nathan's fish from the last time we went out to Strawberry.

The chipmuncks were so funny they kept trying to get
to our licorice so we shared a few little peices.





Out-fishing all the boys

A week and a half ago Nathan and I took his father Dave and our nephew W out fishing with us.  We took them to the exact same spot that we had so much luck at last time we were out.  They had seen our pictures and heard our stories and they were excited to have the same adventures as we had the last time we came out here.

We got up very early in the morning and made the two and a half hour drive to the reservoir.  We arrived a little later than we had hoped but quickly set up and got our poles baited and into the water. 

W and David talking about all the fish they will catch

Within 15 minute of arriving I caught my first fish!

We put it on the chain to wait for the others that

would also be joining us for dinner,

While Nathan was helping W get his pole all rigged

up Nathan's pole started to bob.  I alerted them to 

the fish on the line and Nathan sent W over to 

reel it in.  It looks like a big one...

Unfortunately the fish (yes there had been one) used

the weeds to work itself free of the hook and all

W was able to bring in was a great big bunch of 

lake weed.

W has become quite the fisherman over the last 

two years.  All he asks for for his birthdays and 

Christmas is more fishing gear, and he is always up 

for a fishing trip.

Uncle Nate instructing W on the proper way to fish.

"You must do this with your lips.  That way the 

fish cannot see your mouth and they think that 

you will not eat them."  

I was a second to slow with my camera to catch 

these two hugging (if you ask them they were wrestling).

No; we did not put the sticker on him.  He did it himself and
then slept all the way home.  Fishing is hard work.

After a long morning fishing we returned home with my fish as the only one we caught.  That's right, the lone female in the group was the only one to catch a fish.  We ended up releasing it off the chain and letting it swim back to be caught again another day.  

We have decided that next time we go back to the reservoir we will do so for evening fishing.  We find it much more successful then morning fishing. (Plus we can sleep in.)

Goodbye Grandma Richards

On July 23, 2014 Nathan's last remaining grandparent, his Grandma Richards passed away while staying at Nathan's parents home.  We were blessed to be able to visit with her and spend many hours talking with her during the preceding months while she lived at his parents home.

Merle Wilkins Richards, 86, of Hunter, Utah passed away on July 23, 2014 at the home of her daughter, Carol Perry, in Lake Point, Utah At the time of her passing and for several days previous, she was surrounded by her family and had enjoyed wonderful experiences visiting with them and feeling their love for her.

Merle was born December 12, 1927 to Rodney and Elsie Fern Wilkins in Hunter, Utah. She married Warren B. Richards on December 22, 1950 in the St. George, Utah Temple. They were blessed with eight children: Brent Richards, David (Stephanie)Richards, Marianne (Richard) Reading, Janice (Raymond) Poole, Carol (David) Perry, Karen (Steven) Morrey, John (Maria Elena) Richards, William Bradford (Suzette) Richards. She is blessed with 30 grandchildren and 38 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, Warren, in 2002.

Merle was fun-loving and adventurous which lead to many fun moves around the country-Wyoming, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and back to Utah. She was a nurse and loved working with the new-born babies in the local hospital for 10 years in Texas. She was the number one “card shark” with her grandchildren and could always be counted on for help, a smile, and a hug. She loved to read and enjoyed greatly listening to music. She was an active participant in life and she tried to be self-reliant in all she did. She was loved by all who knew her and will be greatly missed.

Nathan's mother Carol (front row, second from the left)

with her seven siblings.

At the graveside one of the daughters-in-law who works

for an animal rescue center brought a hawk to release 

back into the wild.  Nathan's mother was able to set

it free.

The hawk sat in the tree for a few minutes and then took off

One blessing that resulted because of Grandma's passing is that Nathan got to spend several days spending time with his Mother. Even though we live only 15 miles away from each other both Nathan and his mother work for the same company but on completely different schedules.  When one is working the other has their days off.  While one is on night-shift the other is scheduled day-shift.  Often if we want to have a family get-together with everyone present Carol ends up taking a day off so that they can both be their.  

When Nathan went in to work on July 24th, the morning after his grandmother passed away and informed them that he would need Monday off to attend the funeral they told him to go home for the rest of the week.  Because of this he was able to spend many hours visiting with his mom and the rest of the family.

Feeding the horses with Uncle Nate

Last week we took some carrots and watermelon rinds over to feed the horses.  Many of our nieces and nephews were there with us and had a fun time helping us share with Buck and Budger. 

T was fearless.  I was a little worried that Budger would get greedy and try for a few fingers as well.  Luckily he didn't

Buck is being so friendly and entergetic since we have put
some new fancy shoes on him.  They seem to be reliving
a lot of the pain he has had with his leg the last two years

P who is usually pretty timid around the horses even joined in.  Very much surprising Grandpa.

T sharing with Buck and Budger trying to try to get the
 carrot for himself.

T and J had a great time helping Nate fill up the trough.  They also helped give Buck a much loved shower.  Unfortunately, as is common with little boys, they also spent much of the time trying to get everyone else wet as well.








Next the boys pitched in to help with the hay.

T and J were right in the middle of all the action.

Very hands-on helpers.  They didn't even notice that most of they hay just blew back into their faces when they tried to toss it over the fence.

J was very excited that he found a horse shoe.  He
couldn't wait to take it inside to show everyone.

After J ran inside Nate got a small can of oats for Buck and Budger.  Uncle Nate tried very hard to convince T that they were good and that he should eat some himself.  But T was not convinced and let the horses have them all.

Uncle Nate again helping T toss a handful of hay into
Budger.  Notice that he is shielding his face for when the
hay will inevitably blow back at him.