Probably slightly illegal to post this

Getting ready to dirty dash as little indians!

Last night I watched the movie Chocolat....okay so it's a little melodramatic, probably shown in sociology classes, but the little moral at the end....I loved it.

This woman's whole way of living, which is what a priest comments at the end is... "It is not about the bad things that we avoid, but the good things that we embrace"

Another good little thought....I watched a Mormon message last night called What is Most Important. President Monson said, the most important things in life usually includes the people that we love. Love that!

So this week was a little exhausting

4 shifts

a little case of food poisoning from some avocados gone bad, shouldn't have cooked with them

Little sleep

Birthday parties

And....the DIRTY DASH!

The dirty dash is a 10k up Soldier Hollow by Midway. It was so stinking hilarious!

Obstacles to conquer:

A mud hill

hay bails to jump over

tubes to crawl through

mud walls to jump over

a quarter mile stretch through Deer Creek swamp land

Trenches of mud to trudge through

And....the world's longest waterslide

And the ending mud pit

Loved the run! We were cowboys and indians! For the last half quarter mile we all held hands to run into the mud pit, help each other climb out, and then held hands into the finish line...of course while singing Chariots of Fire!

I went to the temple this morning and I just love the Spirit that is there. When I am baptized for each person, I always love to think about what it is going to be like when I get to see that person in heaven. The temple seems to be the one special place where my body and soul are in a state of complete peace. Such an amazing gift to have the temple so close!

*Blessings*

Today at work Tim brought all of us who are running the Dirty Dash treats to wish us good luck!

And we were all introduced to the greatest discovery....Lindt chili dark chocolate. How does it work? Well, it starts out dark and chocolately....once the chocolate is all but dissolved in your mouth there is a wowza! Chili kickback! Mmmm it's tasty.

I had a really great experience today....my mind has been buzzing around about some things. Worries, fears. I just can't seem to feel at peace about certain things. Last night I had a good cry and felt prompted I should ask one of my dear friends for a priesthood blessing. I always feel a little sheepish asking for blessings. In some ways, it is a little pride swallowing to ask for a blessing because I know I'm in a situation where I really can't do it on my own. And I am Miss Independent. I love doing things on my own. But nonetheless I felt I should ask for one.

My friend is amazing....he gave me an amazing blessing that I would be calm, in a way that I could feel the Spirit. Today at work I just felt that no matter what went wrong at the hospital, nothing could shake me. I felt so much patience and love for my patients.....even the frequent flyers that sometimes drive me NUTS.

I love the gospel of Jesus Christ. I think how grateful I am that I have the knowledge I do. I have become SO much more grateful for what I know since I have started working in the hospital. Sometimes a day in the ER can be seem like all hell has converged on one place....one patient has tried to commit suicide, another is wanting to get high off of drugs, another is getting a medical clearance before going to jail, another patient has just overdosed for the 5th time that month, another patient has just been physically abused, another is suffering from severe depression. Day after day of this can get a little overwhelming. I've had days where I have thought, there is absolutely no hope for the world. The addictions in this world are so powerful and so binding, to that person there seems no way out. Many people are in such a vicious cycle of living day after day being chained by these addictions....it is no life at all. Satan is smart, the temptations are so subtle, but soon they become a swift, slippery slope and the return to the straight and narrow is so difficult. I've been angry some shifts....at Satan for his temptations, at God for allowing human suffering, at patients and people for being so stupid. But as I've worked through trying to understand what the point to all of it is, I keep coming back to how grateful I am to know the gospel and how much I wish many of my patients could understand what I do. Now more than ever, I am gaining a more sure testimony that Christ lives and that He does understand the suffering of His children, and that no matter how bleak it seems, there is always hope to change through the atonement. I know I can't help these people with the short time I have every day with them to change their lives completely, but I can at least try to be Christ-like and show little kindnesses....and if everyone who had the knowledge of the gospel did that, that encountered others that are struggling...who is to say it wouldn't be huge in helping them change!

Sometimes in my own life, I have moments where I get so scared and paralyzed by fear that even though things are really good in life right now....who is to say tomorrow my life won't drastically change?! I worry sometimes about something happening to my family or that I will lose my job or I won't have enough money to live or the good in my life will completely disappear. But then I feel this amazing power in knowing that there will NEVER be a time in my life where all is irreversibly lost. I will never lose my family because we are sealed in the temple together to have each other forever. I may be poor and not have much but the Lord will take care of me. The sun will always come up every day. The seasons will always change and be beautiful. Sunday and church will come EVERY week. And I always have my Book of Mormon and my testimony. These are things that can never be taken from me. I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for these blessings. I am so thankful that my Savior knows me personally and loves me as His daughter.

And another great experience today.....

I got a little case of food poisoning overnight....I've been drinking the pepto since 4am this morning. My stomach has been cramping sooo bad. But I'm actually really grateful for the experience because it helps me remember and realize the pain my patients are in....I'm pretty sure I was much swifter at dishing out the pain medications today to my peeps with abdominal pain:).

And did you know? Pepto shows up on a CT scan. Who would've thunk?!

Its tuck time!

Relatively no patients....this is what became of our work shift! No words!

The Mama

I get to see the Mama Johnson today for a dinner get together. Hands down this is the single greatest woman that has ever lived. I continually aspire to be who and what she is, and the day that I ever become even half of who she is....it will be a day of miracles.

The mama has been laying down quite the legacy....and continues

Growing up she greeted us every morning with smiles and hugs and a big, "GOOD MORNING, ----inserted name of child."

I remember one Valentine's Day when I was in high school the Mama sent to school a massive, at least 3 foot large heart balloon attached to chocolate and goodies.

I would get letters sometimes in my bathroom when I was having a hard time

Always encouraging.....the mama has never lost faith in any of us, she is a BELIEVER!

The mama is the embodiment of what the prophets counsel us to be...simple and true.

She is true to the beat of her own drum.

When the mama is super excited she whoops and hollers and jumps up and down

The mama has the greatest, most contagious laugh....the best memories are of us chitlins gathered for family prayer and the mama is the one who busts a gut over something, which kills any hopes of reverence, the padre trying to regain order, the mama still busting a gut.

When I have gone to Stampin Up conventions with the mama, I LOVE how the 300+ women in her downline flock around her, AMY, AMY, We LOVE you!!! I love her too

The mama has an amazing ability to recognize the difficulties and hard times that come to everyone in life, but she remains 100% optimistic about the future.

The mama is always trying to learn something new, new gospel study, new recipes, new ways to cope with present challenges, new skin creams, new toenail polish, new garden ideas, new scrapbooking ideas....this woman is continually in a mad pursuit of discovery

Just recently I had friends over for a weekend get together....the mama set up 'her hotel' complete with beds for everyone, wash clothes perfectly folded onto the beds, and miniature soap and shampoo bottles for everyone.

The mama will take time out of her busy schedule to talk to us when we are home, make sure we are doing okay

The mama has fiery opinions, and she will stick to the opinions to the grave....incredible integrity, completely unswayable by others on things she knows to be right

The mama is an energizer bunny....her day start every morning at 7-8, hard core exercise for an hour, a healthy breakfast, kiddies to school, work for Stampin Up, emails, phone calls, errands, bills to pay, scrapbooking, healthy lunch, more work, gardening, visiting with friends and neighbors, and then a dinner for the kiddies return from school, encouraging kiddies on homework and piano and sports, visiting with family, scripture time, prayer, bed. AMAZING!

The mama is incredibly patient....she broke her nose about 2 years ago which has included a couple surgeries, and still it gives her troubles, but she hardly ever complains

The mama loves adventure....trips to Taiwan, Lake Powell, DC

She loves traditions....holiday decorations, father's blessings before school, love notes to eachother at Christmastime, soup in the fall, family piano concerts on Sundays, lunch dates when we are together

She loves mozzarella, basil, tomato paninis

The mama is a firm advocate of seizing opportunities, continuing education

She loves the family dog Ned....maybe more than us chitlins

For our birthdays we always get a DELICIOUS home cooked meal

Christmas morning....always a trail of double bubble gum from our bedrooms to the Christmas tree

Dance parties with the mama

Her favorite pump up song...."Ain't no other man" by Christina Aguilera

The fact that she is a foot and a half shorter than the padre and she needs her kissing chair to reach his face

I LOVE the mama! I wished everyone in the world was as lucky as I am to have a mama like I do

Man from Snowy River

Just watched Man from Snowy River

My favorite line from the movie...Jim and Rosemary are on a horse on top of a mountain looking out across the vast mountain range....

Jim says to Rosemary, "You gotta treat these mountains like a high-spirited horse, can't take them for granted."

Rosemary says in reply, "You gotta treat people the same."

I LOVE that! Made me think about the people in my life that I love and that it is sooo true, I can never take them for granted.

The Power of Love!

Guess who is coming back into P-town in 3 short months??!!!

My dear, dear friend Katie POWERS thats who!!!!!!!!!

Today's mission:

Find a way to convince my management company to let Katie sign onto a contract in my apartment 3 months before she will actually be living here, without paying for those 3 months. Could be impossible.

Be proxy to Katie to enroll her back into nursing school

Katie, come back! The French have had you long enough.

Today I was reminded of a funny that happened to Katie and I while we were in Taiwan so I thought I would write about it because this is a story for the ages.....

So we worked for 2 months in the ICU at the Chi Mei hospital in downtown Tainan. It was a great experience and we got to know a lot of the nurses pretty well...at least as much as broken Chingrish communication would allow. So while we were there, Nurses' Day was being celebrated which is an international holiday. The nurses told us that they have a presentation every year in honor of nurses and they wanted us to present something that would represent BYU. So the 8 of us that were there decided we would sing Lord, I would Follow Thee....the BYU Nursing School theme. We practiced for a couple weeks and felt ready when Nurses' Day arrived.

We enter this auditorium that has seated about 500 nurses from Chi Mei. The front row is seating the CEO of the hospital, the directors of Chi Mei, and the Chi Mei doctors. The program begins and the nursing director announces the line up for the evening.....the ICU nurses' presentation, BYU's presentation, a presentation from the directors, some skits....all I really listened to was when we would be going on stage.

We pass out our music while we wait for the ICU nurses to go on stage.....all of a sudden the lights go out. And this music comes blasting through the speakers...

Jolin Tsai, Butterfly...it's Chinese hip hop.

And then...the ICU nurses come onto stage in nothing but pink lingerie. The whole front row goes nuts. What is going on??? For the next 5 minutes we have to witness a pole dancing routine.....and in the back of our minds is the thought that we are going to be following this act with Lord, I would Follow Thee.

The madness finally comes to an end.

I look at our nursing professor....Jim, I'm not going up there, I'm NOT going up there. I look at Katie....I'm not going up there. She agrees.

Jim makes it very clear we are still singing.

So we sing Lord, I would Follow Thee

After the program was over the Chi Mei nursing director came up to us and said, "Next year, try to come up with a program a LITTLE more exciting." If that implies BYU nursing students shedding a little extra clothing to keep people on their toes, they will be in search of another university to bring to their hospital:)

I miss Taiwan, though. Writing this makes me miss the country.

My ultimate dream.....learn Chinese and go back to Taiwan or even China for a few years. I need Rosetta!

The flow

This is how bored I am in a hotel room...while I wait anxiously for Jenni to come back to the hotel room so we can chat and hang out....I'm writing two blogposts in one day.

Greg Laswell....he is my new favorite artist....even though he has been around for 2 years. But Jenni and I were listening to him in the car today as we lazily drove through the small towns of Rochester and Oakville, Washington. Love him, love him. I LOVE his song called Comes and Goes

This is for the ones who stand

For the ones who try again

For the ones who need a hand

For the ones who think they can

It comes and goes in waves

I am only let to wonder why

It comes and goes in waves

I am only let to wonder why

This song speaks to me. Well, actually, back up. The first time I heard this song it reminded me of some Amish man on his farm in Pennsylvania. No idea why. But I love the words in the chorus. I've always wondered why life ebbs and flows. Sometimes life is so good. Some moments I feel so at peace and happy. And then other times life can just stink. Some days in the hospital I am in the flow.....one time I looked up the word 'flow' in wikipedia. It's interesting.

Flow: the mental state of operation in which a person in an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. It is a single-minded immersion and represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performing and learning. The hallmark of flow is a feeling of spontaneous joy, even rapture, while performing a task.

So I've been thinking about times when I feel the flow.....and the ebb....well thats just the annoying stuff I think has to be experienced to feel the flow!

1. When I'm with my family having a good laugh or a good chat around the dinner table

2. When I'm reading the scriptures and the book is coming to life

3. When I'm reading Harry Potter....yes unfortunately this comes right behind reading the scriptures....judgment may be passed:)

4. When I'm on a long run in the mountains

5. When a day in the ER looks like this....taking care of 6 patients at once in a more critical state, admitting at least 1, transporting another patient to another hospital, one patient just came in who is in a full code, the ER doc shouts, "Are we running an ER today, or are we running an ER?!" He is meanwhile flying through charts writing new orders....the other nurses are buzzing around me as fast as I'm buzzing from patient to chart, to phone call, to patient, to doctor, to another nurse, to patient, to chart. I don't think about what I'm saying. Families' of patients are asking me questions and the answers just come...no forethought....thank goodness for an education that prepared me....I really do thrive off of this flow.

6. When Jenni and I are in one of our deep conversations, she is one of my dearest friends who I have known long enough that we can totally predict each others reactions almost perfectly. We have an almost complete understanding of each other. How this happens? I don't know. But I do remember the day I met Jenni....she was at the little convenient store in the cannon center buying chapstick. I knew the moment I saw her we would be great friends. That was 5 years ago. Weird.

7. When I was in college....a good lecture, my mind being blown

8. When I watched 'Inception'...my mind was blown by that too

9. When I am at the temple

10. When I write!

Just a few...

And why human relationships ebb and flow, I don't think some things will ever be figured out:).

Seattle

Right now I'm in Washington with Jenni.

She told me she was going to cover a scrapbooking conference for her marketing company. Wahoo! I would definitely come!

We left sunny Salt Lake City.....

On the plane I met a woman from Korea....this is her story.....

She grew up in South Korea playing the flute.

At the age of 16, her parents sent her away to America where she would study the flute, learn English, and learn American culture....all in the hopes of a better future.

I asked her how she felt during that time. She said she was so lonely, she had no family and no friends. So she said she turned all of her attention to her studies. She would go to school and come home to study really hard. She said she cried herself to sleep the first 6 months. During her high school years she continued to have no friends. She then went to get her bachelors and master degree in flute performance and then in music therapy. She met and married a Korean man and now they have two kids. I asked how her experience changed how she was going to raise her family.

She says.....Korea is crazy. Kids at the age of 4 are already learning English and are enrolled in at least 5 extra curricular activities. They are not naive. They have no childhood. But if you don't raise your kids that way, then they are social outcasts. Parents will send their kids to America while they are still kids. Asia feels that they must become like America. They do not accept their individuality as a culture. But Americans as a culture are self-interested, independent, isolated from each other. Koreans, however, are in large a part of each other, very group oriented. Koreans are becoming more and more Americanized and our economy now keeps up with the world economy. I'm going to give my children a childhood, though. They are each enrolled in 2 extra curricular activities. They play, they get into some trouble, they will not know about the world so early on.

This woman had a strength and courage about her. Despite her difficult past, she held herself with poise and quiet confidence. She spoke with eloquence and considered her words. She had a rare beauty about her. I'm grateful to have met her....always puts life into perspective...the trials and struggles that some people endure and overcome.

We began our flight descent and my sinus infection took a turn for the worse. The pressure in the cabin was putting intense pressure on my head because it couldn't pressurize with the plane. I felt pins and needles in my head, and then I began feeling this popping sensation in my sinuses. For a second i thought....my word, my brains are going to blow out of my eyeballs or my ears, don't know which is going to happen first. I turned to the guy sitting on the other side of me and asked if he had experienced that before. He reassured me he had and that in fact, my brains would still be in place when we landed!!

So Jenni and I made it to Seattle! We found our rental car and Jenni informed me that we had to go to a city called Grand Mounds an hour and a half away where the hotel was located. We took the Grand Mounds exit and landed ourselves in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!

We saw a gas station.

We saw a few houses.

No hotel.

Where were we??

We keep driving down the main bumpy road to hopefully find it.

Nothing.

A few more house.

Trees.

We turn a corner and there before us is the largest hotel monstrosity I've seen outside of Vegas. The Great Wolf Lodge! We made it! And in front of the hotel are 40 foot wolf statues....sentinels, beacons of welcome to the great Northwest!

This place is great!

Indoor waterpark

Log cabin beds

A Starbucks....for hot apple cider of course, perfect for rainy days

Free wi-fi

Scrapbooking ladies!

Unfortunately my sinus infection has kept me bedridden while Jenni scraps away. But it is a blessing in disguise really that I'm in a place where my only options are a waterpark or my hotel bed. I opted for the bed and am now finally giving my body some much needed rest.

A relay race and a bunch of work shifts with little sleep in between....it was only a matter of time before my body finally gave out. I hate relaxing. I don't know how to do it. It is one of my goals to learn how.

So far in my little hotel bed I have.....

Watched the season finale of Lost....so good, I loved the little Lost moral of the story at the end

Gone out to McDonald's twice....that is the only restaurant in town

Found out my current IQ score...132. Wahoo!

Texted Heather Johnson...she has a sinus infection too

And video chatted with my brother Luke

Great day!

I'm a good cover

Two days ago at work was a most interesting day.....

I had a patient who was sick, really sick. He was my first admit of the day into the hospital. The poor man was really large! And he couldn't breath, fluid backed up into his lungs, a heart that wasn't working....he was so anxious he couldn't talk. I was working fast to get him to a more comfortable bed, pain meds meanwhile.

Our ER beds are hard as a rock!! They are really terrible. The med/surg beds are large and luxurious and every patient that finally makes it to one of those always breaths a sigh of relief that they no longer are on the half-of-a-twin-size bed, bed.

So I asked my doc....what room do you want him in?

He wants a med/surg bed.

I call house supervisor....we need a med/surg bed.

The admitting physician also concurs....med/surg bed.

Got it.

I give report to the floor nurse and explain that this patient is also on some heavy duty respiratory machine. She seems to okay it...she can handle it.

So I get the patient ready to go. And it turns into quite the little entourage. I've got his bed, the respiratory therapist has the machine with all the tubes attached. And we've got the whole family following behind....all of the family members are quite large.

We make our way slowly down the hall, barely fit in the elevator, but we are IN!

4th floor....

Get off the elevator, slowly make our way to the room. I see the admitting physician at the nurses' desk. Take 10 minutes to pull equipment and chairs out of the way to fit the ER bed next to the hospital bed. The med/surg nurses are staring at me. No help? Okay I start making requests....you be there, you help here....i feel really bossy. But the job must be done to slide the patient from the ER bed to the hospital bed. The family member decides to lift the patient to a standing position and move him from the ER bed to the hospital bed.

It's a heavy lift! But he manages to pick up the patient. I can see the patient is quickly getting frantic, no oxygen! Its an intense moment. We gotta get him to his bed quick so he can get oxygen.

Then a family member pipes up....I thought he was on the ICU floor. What? I pause for a second. Things aren't adding up. Med/surg nurses giving me blank stares, a respiratory machine, and a lengthy diagnosis.

Okay hold on everybody, I hear myself say....I'm sweating bullets, I feel my skin get really hot and flush. I can feel the family's frustrations....one family starts letting out profanities.

I run down to the admitting physician....where did you want him??

The physician tells me he was surprised to see us up on the med/surg floor and that he needed ICU care immediately. He couldn't wait on this floor, these nurses were not equipped to handle him.

The stress mounts.....I have 3 patients in the ER that I am in charge of who are not getting care. I call down to the ER floor....is everybody okay?? I talk to Tim and he reassures me I'm ok, he's got my patients. Thanks Tim! Okay resume care.

We get a bed in the ICU.....and our little entourage starts off again with tubes clanking and people bumping into each other. We make our way down to the ICU floor.

The ICU floor nurse is frustrated, I can feel it. She isn't making eye contact. Again, the family member lifts the patient, again panic ensues with the patient, lack of oxygen....but we make it to the ICU bed this time. The family's faces are frustrated. I've broken out into a full sweat now. We hook him up to monitors and get him comfortable.

The ICU nurse and I walk out so I can give report to the nurse. She looks at me and tells me what just happened was completely unacceptable. They had no idea a patient was coming and had no time to prepare....

Perspective is interesting.....not knowing what is coming and not being prepared is what I'm learning to do all day every day in the ER, but if it isn't what the norm, then not feeling prepared in the ICU must be very unnerving.

The ICU nurse continues her lament, I take the hit.

I go back down to the ER to face what is inevitably going wrong with my patients, and to begin pulling up my slack. Tim is amazing....he has everything under control, patients are well taken care of. My ER doc comes to his desk and I take in a big gulp of my pride.....Hey, doc I'm sorry I really thought that patient was going to the med/surg floor. Must have been my misunderstanding.

My doc looks confused and then says, What?? No. The admitting physician told me he was a med/surg floor patient. That is where he wanted him. It was not your fault. You just took the hit for him. It was his mistake.

I talked to some of the nurses who began to explain to me...I had just learned my first lesson about the nurse/doc relationship and mistakes in the hospital. The nurse will take the hit. The doc is the health facilitator, the nurse is the face of the hospital.

And I'm a good cover for our docs:).

Sun Never Sets on a Bad Bieber

Red Rock Relay 2010!! This is the rockin' relay course. We started at the top of Brian Head Ski resort and descended 7000 feet to Zion National Park. Amazing. We split the 188 mile relay with 12 peeps. Our team...Sun Never Sets on a Bad A$$ changed to Sun Never sets on a Bad Bieber....with none other than a poster of Justin Bieber himself on the back of our suburban as a beacon of hope on our runs!

Our race start began at 1145 on Friday morning, a crisp , chilly lift ride took our 6 runners from our first van to the top of Brian Head for the first descent. Megan Zitting, Laura Lewis, Jordan Edwards, Alex Wilcox, Amy Fish, and I met up with the first van to begin our first leg standing behind the Bieber!
We ran into Ben Mcgrath and John Hill who were on another team about 20 minutes behind us. Competition definitely ensued!
Our Navajo Ninja moves in honor of the beast of a run Jordan Edwards was about to undertake...a grueling 6.5 miles at 11,000 feet!

And why we are 'Beliebers!'...

When we needed water from our support burb or a little shout out of encouragement from the team....the Bieber poster was such a welcoming site because it differentiated our burb from the rest

To Be or not to Bieb! We Bieber!

And who is Justin Bieber?? 16 year old musical prodigy of Usher. His famous lyrics, "Baby, baby, baby, ohhhh, right....baby, baby, baby, ohhh right!" Greatest catchy tune. I plan on singing that song to my husband one day!

Orange soda man!

New experience from Red rock.....I experienced altitude sickness.

Wikipedia defines it as "a pathological effect of high altitude on humans caused by acute exposure to low partial pressure of oxygen at high altitude. It resembles a case of the flu, carbon monoxide poisoning, or a hangover. Symptoms include....nausea, fatigue, weakness, dizziness, insomnia, pins and needles, persistent rapid pulse, peripheral edema, pulmonary edema."

Most everyone on our team had some symptoms that resembled altitude sickness. I was running my first run at 4.5 miles at 9,000 feet when I started getting the chills, nausea, and I felt like I couldn't think straight. At the end of my run, my team was asking me questions and I couldn't understand anything they were saying. I felt like I had fluid building up in my lungs. Definitely wasn't ready for that moment.

The team....my red rock team was just that....they rocked!!! I loved them! There was never a dull moment in our car. And we lost one of our runners to some flu symptoms and it was so cool how fast our team mates jumped on helping our down teammate....

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a huge fascination with World War II. During our runner down moment during the night, I was having flashes in my mind of what it would have been like to be in the Ardennes Forest...I felt like we were getting a small taste.....no soldier left behind, we had to carry our soldier out and replace him. And we were so sleep deprived from our earlier runs but knew what had to be done. I love those epic moments of human struggle and then triumph.

Favorite moments of the run...

The Bieber dance parties

Cheering on our runners

The wonderful 30 minutes of sleep on a lawn chair at SUU's indoor swimming pool with the large air conditioners in the rafters that lulled us into a deep, deep sleep.

Frank and his twin...the moment when Megan freaked out over 'The Creeper!" that her and Katie Squires had seen at their last Ragnar...Frank was adorned in tube socks, shorty blue s horts, and a white tank top that didn't quite back up with the waistline of his shorts exposing some pudge and love handles. Frank turned out to be a cute little man though....Alex passed him up and Frank yells out "Goooood job, goooooood job (total exertion)".

My last run was 5.5 miles, the uphill was 2 miles, and then down 3 miles. I started the uphill on a highway shoulder and about half mile into it, the trail veers off onto a rocky trail up a hillside....i had no way of telling my support burb that I was no longer on the highway. So I just kept going up the hill, hoping that I was going the right way....no other runners in sight.

I turned a corner and saw my support burb parked a couple hundred feet on the road below me. I yelled and waved my hands frantically! "HELLLLLLLLLOOOOOOO!" They finally saw me and I threw my hands in the air....I had no idea what was going on!" But I kept running on, running on. It became a complete desert on the trail and I could no longer see the road, just a continual uphill. I finally got to the top of the hill, and there in front of me.......

Hundreds of miles of vistas

Red rock

Brilliant blue sky

Desert scrub

Bright sun rays

All of Southern Utah......and me. No one else

I threw my fists in the air and with a huge smile on my face that no one was going to see I yelled YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I was on top of the world!

Seeing Megan flying past runners at lightning speed on her last ascent run....it was remarkable....she is sooo fast!

Favorite, favorite moments.....loved being with my team, loved being surrounded by the beauty of southern utah, loved running my heart out to my rap music, loved the serenity of the stars and the quiet during the night, loved the energy of the 2400+ runners!

Okay, and the top favorite moment....clasping hands with my other teammates at the very end and running through the finish line! Triumph! Success! Victory!!

And the best part of all......we took 6th place!!!!!! Amazing Beliebers!!!!!!!!