Yakima Adventures via "Worst Blogger Ever"

I really have been MIA. Missing In Action due to our adventures, exploring, and various activities in this wonderful place that I can officially call home (unpacked the last box yesterday, excuse me while I freak out with excitement!) I loathe moving...moving on before I rant.
Here is what we have done in July-August....... READY GO

White Coat Ceremony: Sat in a beautiful theatre and watched Glen receive his white coat. He looks like a real doctor now! Proud of you babe, but i'm more proud of the person who came up with the Peach Creme brûlée at the restaurant we ate at afterwards! Come to Yakima just for that people.

First Day of School- Let's be honest I wasn't that excited for this day. But Olive looks so damn cute that i'll post about it. Go Glen!!! Go Olive!!!

Our cousin Renae came to visit us! We love her. Enjoyed a good visit and dinner. (Olive occasionally is naked, please don't judge)

Hops Festival-Yakima grows basically everything, but mostly grapes for wine and hops for beer. We enjoyed a parade that had the most candy thrown than any parade I've ever been to. I knew there was a reason I go to things that Olive could care less about! Look at her face in the stroller parade pic, it was really too hot, she looks how I felt. We enjoyed the parade and funnel cake+corndog with our friend McKenna. I took Glen back later after school to show him the fresh donuts and just to walk around!

Walking the Greenbelt, Berry Picking, Splash Pad: Exactly what they sound like.

Boat Races in Kennewick: We went and watched the hydroplane boat races in Tri-cities. The day started out with a Air Show right above the river. It was a perfect day spent by the water drinking Pepsi, eating lunchables, stax, and watching the races. Those boats were seriously impressive, they are average speeds of 120mph. One of my favorite days so far.

My next favorite day is Leavenworth and apple cider tasting: We went with our friends McKenna and Kourtey to Leavenworth for the day! Such a quaint town that makes you feel like you moved to Europe. Candy shops, pastries, a little bit of hiking and shopping made for my perfect date! Afterwards we hit up an Apple Cider brewery for a tasting and of course we left with a couple bottles.

Mom Camp: 12 Moms, 40 kids, no sleep, fun hikes, good food, rattlesnake, swarming bees and laughing until I cried all made for a memorable time. Mom Camp 2014 was a success. Shout out to  the brilliant minds of Mom Camp. Olive and I had a blast + Olive made 40 friends and it was a vacation because I hardly held her those 3 days, she was a hot item to say the least.

Rimrock Lake: Took friends, fried chicken, sour patch kids, and floatation devices out to Rimrock Lake. We played in the water all day. Fun times.

Anniversary: Our amazing friends Dave and Amberlee offered to watch Olive while we went on a date for our two Anniversary. We went out to dinner and had plans to do other things but we ended up sitting in downtown Yakima and talking for an hour. It was much needed time away from the little miss Olive and reminded me why I married Glen. Happy 2 years! Thank for the laughs and always keeping me in line. XOXO

Mt. Rainier: We woke up after our Anniversary date and decided that we needed some more family time. Med School has a way of stealing every ounce of energy and leaves you feeling distant from your family if you're not careful, especially while we were still adjusting, and currently still are. So on a whim we decided church could wait until next week and jumped in the car and spent the day in Mt. Rainier National Park. Basically we drove to Switzerland for the day. It was so unbelievably beautiful, It didn't seem like real life. Come visit us and this too could be you, frolicking through the flowers in Switzerland...no really, please come visit me.

That's our first two months in Yakima. Life is going to be okay here after all. I really am falling in love with WA. I don't know if i'll ever leave :)

Live in the Northwest...CHECK!

We officially arrived at our new home in Yakima (gazoontight!). There is nothing worse than moving-except maybe worms in your cereal...maybe. We are pretty much done unpacking but still have a pretty empty house due to the fact that we have never bought large pieces of furniture. In Logan we must have looked really poor or something because people kept giving us couches and tables and things! It was great. I am thinking I can pull the same stunt here; cue the dirt on face and I'm bringing out the ash cloth to wear as we speak. Alas we ordered a couch this week and it is coming in the mail. I keep telling Glen to go check the mailbox to see if our couch is here yet, I think I'm really funny! We bought two hideously beautiful retro chairs from Goodwill and combined with our new couch and my good eye I'm pretty sure I can pull of this decorating thing. I'll post pictures when it's all done because as of right now all we have is the two chairs and our apartment could borderline be a meth house.
We've kept ourselves pretty busy between packing, figuring out where everything is,  and finding things to do before Glen starts school. Once the school thing happens Olive will have to be my partner in crime and she can't even walk. (NOT complaining-I'm grateful Lord she can't)

Dad and Camille came out to Yakima to help us move. They are absolute saints, but a little better looking. They helped us unpack and get settled. What those two got done in 2 days I probably get done in a year. I get a little distracted while trying to unpack, it's like everything is brand spanking new. We are so grateful for them! Oh and like 6 people from our ward showed up to help so that was super awesome. We were grateful no one sued us due to heat stroke because we moved in on the hottest day of the year- 106 degrees ladies and gentlemen. We were grateful for every ones help so that we didn't die before Glen got to even start Med School cause that would've been a big bummer.

Have you ever eaten an apple? If not what about a peach, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, apricot, drank beer or wine, cucumber, pear etc? Well you've had a taste of Yakima. We live in wine country, don't all come visit us at once! We are surrounded by orchards, orchards and more orchards. We went and picked 18 pounds of blackberries and strawberries. It was so fun. Glen gave Olive some to try and she loved them! She loved them so much she decided to ruin everything she and her mom were wearing because she squeezed them all over! We've been eating berries ever since. I made the best berry cobbler, it only took 5 minutes to prepare, that's what made is so good! We also went and explored our local  arbitrarium- a place where trees and shrubs are cultivated (I feel so smart). They had the best rose garden! The only bad thing about it was the geese poop that decided to get all over our feet and stroller. We learned all about different trees and even explored a Japanese garden! We hit garage sales over the weekend and found some small treasures. We also went and walked the Greenbelt, it is a long trail that runs along the river here. Sunday we were super impressed by our ward as we met a lot of nice families and got 4 dinner invites for that night-I've never felt so famous before. We've explored and found the best parks nearby for me and baby Olive to go play at during the days and of course we found the best and closest shopping for me. If I'm going to survive this Med school thing there damn well be a Target and Tj Maxx nearby. (I'm happy, 10 minutes to be exact)

 BERRIES!

 Picking berries with Miss Olive

Walking along the Greenbelt

 The rose garden was amazing!

I forgot to mention Olive is crawling. I also forgot to mention I dropped her right on her head at church. It was pretty traumatic and she and I both survived so i'm convinced we can make it through anything. When she's a teenager i'm sure i'll wish I could do it again...kidding. It was really horrible and I felt terrible plus my whole relief society saw me, I shall now be known as the "baby tosser". I have been working on her nursery and finished her polka dot wall, I was happy how it turned out except the gold vinyl doesn't want to stick for some reason...i'm irritated but i'm going to figure something out.

I think we are going to like it here, that is if our car doesn't get stolen (one of the highest auto theft stats in the nation). I wasn't relieved one bit as our friends in our complex almost had theirs stolen a few months ago...I miss you Utah. We miss our families but we've survived a week and it was a blink of an eye. I have a feeling it will be a bit slower once school starts but let's pretend that it'll go fast. Cheers to 1 week down 2 years to go in Yakima!

 Our beautiful, hideous chairs 

 Olive loves her new crib!

 Polka dot wall and Olive rubbing it in my face that she can pull herself up and almost out of her crib. I'm unamused. 

A Serious Post-Glioblastoma

I've put this off too long. It's hard for me to believe that a person can make it through their life without experiencing the death of a loved one, or someone close to us. I know I haven't.

Our next door neighbors, Clyde and Carol are the most incredible people. Since I can remember they have been to all my sporting events, baptism, birthday parties, and even came over to our house for all my dances to see me all dressed up before I left on my dates. Almost every Sunday night was spent at their house playing games, eating junk food, or watching TV/movies. Carol and I went to every Twilight midnight movie together among countless others. I became close with both Clyde and Carol, especially as I have grown older. If I was born 30 years earlier I'm sure Clyde and I would've gotten together. We joked a lot and laughed a lot but he and I talked on the phone often especially when I moved to college. He had failing health due to a disease called Lupus. When I would come down from USU on the weekends I would go sit at Dialysis with him while I studied for my next test, while also visiting and having good talks. He also was so skeptical of Glen, he wasn't impressed by this "going to be a doctor" fella. But he approved, even though he didn't want to. Carol and I were best friends. I'm not kidding. We would laugh so hard I almost would pee. She was so funny and crazy. Dancing in the car, ice cream runs, movies, dinners/lunches, shopping, and don't forget your Hollywood sleeze- she knew everything. Plus she always had a good book to recommend or would have a good TV show to watch. Clyde and Carol have always been there for me. Holidays always had at least an hour spent at their house, and vacations and birthdays we always got a present.

 My 18th Birthday

 One of the many twilight movies!

 Frozen Yogurt

 Christmas 2011

 excuse my tanning addiction and just look how beautiful the other two are..

 Senior Prom

 Graduation

Back in the Fall Glen and I were discussing future plans. I was pregnant at the time and we were tossing around the idea about moving in with my parents. I never thought I would move back in with my parents but for some reason when the idea was mentioned it just felt right. It seemed nice to me. I would have help with the baby and I would get to spend some time with my family before we moved out of Utah. So that's what we did.  The first month flew by especially as we got wrapped up in being new parents to baby Olive. Glen was working two jobs and working the night shift so it was busy. We had lots of visitors coming to see new baby girl and the holidays are always so busy.

On February 9th Glen had just finished a night shift. Olive woke up at about 6:30 and so I put some sweats on. My parents were headed out the door for early 7:00 church meetings. My mom called me as she was pulling out and told me there was an ambulance turning onto our street and she thought it was headed to the Morgans. I gave Olive to Emma and ran over right away and saw the ambulance and cop car in the driveway. I had a sick feeling and new that something was wrong. Clyde would never let someone call an ambulance for him. I was opening the door as the paramedics were coming out. That's when I saw Carol and I knew that Clyde had gone. He had gone peaceful in the night. It was a horrible day. I thought to myself "This is why we are here in Mapleton, so I can be there for Carol through the hard times this summer."

Carol immediately after Clyde's death started acting a little strange. She couldn't remember things that she should have. We had her over for dinner a lot to help keep her busy and she loved being around people. She kept saying things like "I can't leave my kids, they just lost their dad." I thought it was strange that she kept talking about her dying. She also kept expressing how she kept seeing Clyde. He wouldn't stop smiling and laughing and he was driving her nuts! Things kept getting worse. She wasn't getting out of bed for work, she couldn't remember times or dates and she couldn't have a normal conversation. I then started researching on the internet different psychosis that people can go through after the death of a loved one and some of her symptoms matched. We had plans to go to Divergent at 7:20 on March 21st. She was looking forward to it but had gone to the movie theater 2 nights in a row to make sure she didn't miss it because she couldn't remember the date and time. She was also having troubles using her phone. Her daughter called me the morning of the 21st and I told her I was really worried about Carol and I thought she needed to go to the doctor and maybe get a psych evaluation. Her daughter came down to get her dressed and make sure she had eaten and noticed her neck was very swollen. She took her to the doctor right away and he sent them immediately to the ER. They did a MRI and found 4 masses on her brain. They did a biopsy and a week later the result was stage 4 Glioblastoma. With treatments they thought they could buy her a year. They began radiation and she stayed at a treatment center. People rallied and she seriously got the best care I've ever seen. The support was amazing. When it came time for her to leave the treatment facility due to insurance they brought her home. People were spending so much time trying to do shifts with her and make sure she had 24/7 care because she couldn't be left alone. I was spending so much time trying to fill in shifts and help with her care. After a week and a half her family decided that this wasn't possible to do because of how much time and effort it was taking and she had declined a little bit. My mom must've been inspired and one scary night after she had run a high fever suggested that Glen and I move in with her. We spent the next day going to the temple and praying about what was right. Glen needed a little convincing but after we went to the temple we were on the same page and felt really strong that we needed to move in with her. The family couldn't afford a treatment center because they are ridiculously expensive and hiring a nurse full time is even more expensive. Glen and I are both Certified Nurse Assistants and have worked close with meds and dealt with a lot of these situations before. We told her family that we were willing to move in. That night when we sat down with her son and his wife, whom I love dearly, and we told them that we would move in and give Carol the care she needed. I felt Clyde very close. The room was very emotional.  I think Clyde had a plan all along for his wife, and that is why we had moved next door. 

Visiting in the hospital after her biopsy

We had a plan that we would move in until May 30th and then her kids would be able to take over because the grandkids would be out of school. We moved just our necessities over and a nice mattress and started caring for Carol. It was apparent to me right away that things were getting worse. She had started chemo and she had gotten weaker, more tired, and more anxious. The chemo was making her sick and more restless and it took much convincing for me to get her to take her chemo pill. As the weeks went on things got worse. I felt like I was watching someone with Alzheimer's progress in 3 days instead of 3 years. She had a doctors appointment that Glen and her son attended and they were so surprised at her decline they moved her MRI up 3 weeks. Carol then kicked Glen and her son out of the room so she could talk to the doctors on her own. She was very limited with speech at this point. She knew what she wanted to say but she couldn't formulate the words. It was frustrating for everyone, especially her!

 Outing to get Rita's-ended at Coldstone

Trip to the Mall

The next day things were so bad. We had left for a wedding then realized that she needed to go to the ER. Her family took her to the hospital and my friend who works in the ER received her which was another small blessing. They did the MRI right away and it showed that 2 of the tumors had doubled in size in 10 days, with treatment. The doctor she had seen a couple days previous came in and expressed that when Carol had kicked Glen and her son out of the room she had told him that if the cancer was worse she wanted to be done with treatment and wanted to be put on hospice. This was a miracle because she could hardly form a sentence and for her to be able to express her wishes was a blessing, and we were able to honor her wishes with peace of mind. We got on with an AMAZING hospice company, Sunrise is hands down the most amazing hospice company i've seen in my work. The next weekend was Mother's day. She was awake enough to spend time with over 80 people that dropped in and out of her home that weekend. She couldn't talk but could still touch and look at people. The following week was downhill and 7 days later she slipped away so peaceful just after talking to her son in Arizona and surrounded by the ones she loved most.

At the treatment center

In all my nursing experience I've never been on both sides at the same time. It was incredibly hard but the benefits outweighed the difficulty. There is nothing more gratifying than being able to care for someone you love and knowing without a doubt they got the best care anyone could've given them.
 After she had gone the days after were even more difficult. I had spent my every minute of every day and night thinking about Carol, worrying about her, making sure she had her meds and had eaten that for the weeks following I didn't know what to do with myself. I was so glad that she wasn't suffering but life just sucks. Loosing people we love sucks. Sure I'm glad that they are in a better place and I'm grateful for my faith but that doesn't make any of the process easier. The loss is still there.

 The last picture I have with both of them. So glad they met baby Olive

I am grateful for my experiences I had with Carol. I learned humility, sacrifice, service and the blessings that come from that. My knowledge of the Plan of Salvation was greatly increased. You couldn't deny there was a God and an afterlife after you felt the spirit in their home. The experiences that are too private to share were and are numberless. The lessons from this trial, and experience are undeniably some of the greatest I will have in this life.

I love Clyde and Carol and my life will never be the same without them. I know they live on and that i'll see them again someday, but that doesn't take away the sting that comes with missing them. I miss them. I miss both of them so much. I wanted to go to a movie the other night and no one would go with me. So I stayed home and cried because Carol would've gone and I missed my friend. I am a better person throughout these experiences but I also think I'm going grey from all the stress.