News from the Beehive State

Hello to all our friends and family! We miss you all!
A lot has happened since my last blog post, so here's the latest:
1. We took a trip down to New Mexico to celebrate with Jesi Hale and David Dornbos on their wedding day. The wedding took place at the Hale residence--the landscape was beautiful! Since Jesi is part Navajo, the ceremony reflected many Navajo traditions. We loved it! It was so great to see many friends from Calvin at the wedding. We saw friends from Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, California, Texas, Colorado, and Michigan! We were able to explore a bit the morning of the wedding and visited the Gallup Flea Market and went on a hike that included some impromptu crack climbing. It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but it was worth it!
2. I started my clinical rotation at the VA hospital. I've completed 3 of 7 weeks of this rotation and there has been ups and downs. I enjoyed the outpatient portions which included counseling and classes for diabetes, weight management, and heart health as well as home-based visits. While not all of the patients are easy to work with, some are really funny--whether or not they are trying to be. Also, Dr. Oz seems to the #1 competitor with dietitians--most patients would rather believe him that us. It's hard to convince a faithful Dr. Oz viewer that he actually has no formal education in nutrition. For the last week and a half I've been doing inpatient dietetics. Unfortunately this is much more overwhelming. Most of the patients I talk with are really sick and don't want to be bothered with nutrition questions. Although I've had a few who have told me to come back anytime to talk because I remind them of their granddaughter :). A highlight of my inpatient experience happened yesterday--I got to watch PICC (peripherally inserted central catheter) line insertion surgery. A PICC line is a long, flexible tube that is inserted into a vein in the upper arm and advanced until the tip reaches Superior Vena Cava (in the chest near the heart). I watched this surgery because total parental nutrition (which is used when an individual's intestines are not functioning) is given through a PICC line. Unfortunately this surgery went terribly wrong. The surgery normally takes 15 minutes, and this one took 1.75 hours! After looking at x-rays it turned out that the PICC line was in an artery going up to the brain (a life threatening error) and it was yanked out immediately. Wow!
3. Our friends in SLC, Caleb and Amanda, are getting married next month! We helped Amanda move her stuff to their new apartment (only 1.5 blocks from her old apartment) a couple of weeks ago. I'm sure we'll help Caleb with his stuff in about a month. Their apartment is only 1.5 blocks from our place. We also went to a couples shower for them--and it was camping themed! All the couples participated in a couples camping tournament. Unfortunately Todd and I could not throw a frisbee straight to save our lives, so we didn't advance past the first round. With a little help, Caleb and Amanda won after throwing bags blindfolded, racing in sleeping bags, and setting up a tent in record time.
4. Todd has set the bar high for all men by taking over all of the cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, and laundry for the summer! It's been so wonderful. I wouldn't say he enjoys it...but he doesn't complain too much. My dad says he is setting a bad example...haha!
5. Todd has two students he is tutoring 1 to 2 times per week. Both students wanted some help with ACT preparation. He is also holding morning practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the XC team. He is excited about a few new athletes who have been showing up that may have some potential. Todd is VERY excited about the new TV we just bought...he's been researching them for over 4 months now. I wasn't that excited until I found out we now have TV land....hooray for I Love Lucy and the Andy Griffith Show!
6. We wish we could have celebrated with our fathers on Father's Day. We are so thankful to have loving, supportive, Christian fathers!
I think that's all for now. Happy Summer!

Hiking around in Gallup, NM

Sawyer showing how its done. This is NOT as easy as it may appear.

Jesi and David

Lauren and Todd playing bags

XC girls reunited!

Caleb and Amanda after winning the Couples Camping Challenge

Todd happily watching sports on our new TV

It's June!

Hello again!
So far June has brought two days around 90 degrees...much warmer than I'd like. But, early next week the temperatures won't reach 70, so it won't be lasting too long!
I've completed my first rotation for my summer internship. 4 weeks of food service management are complete! It was a great learning experience and I was surprised to discover how much I enjoyed it. I wasn't terribly excited about either the VA or the food service rotation, but I was proved wrong. I stayed busy with menu planning, safety and accuracy audits, meetings, plate waste studies, in-service for food service workers. and more. On Monday I begin the clinical rotation at the VA, which will be 7 weeks long. 
I just began work on my Non-thesis project on Nutrition for the elite athlete. I will be proposing my project to any interestied faculty on July 20. There is a lot of work to do between now and then! 
Todd just finished up school yesterday. He has signed a contract for next year and will be teaching one additional class. He will also be coaching cross country this fall. There will be practice a couple times a week starting mid-summer. Todd got some nice notes from students to thank him for being a great teacher. He certainly was a favorite teacher of many of the students!
We've both been running faithfully. Todd has decided to get in really good 5K shape once again. He is trying to ease into it slowly to avoid the injuries that he so often gets. My marathon training plan starts Monday so I've been building miles in anticipation of beginning that plan. 
We've been enjoying nice weather this past month. We grilled out a few times; once at a beautiful park near our house. We decided to spend a night at Steiner State Park over Memorial Day weekend. There was a nice reservoir with a great beach, but the water was still very cold. Earlier this week Grandpa and Grandma Mitchell stopped by Salt Lake City on their way to California for the wine festival. We showed them around SLC and then they took us to dinner at a restaurant on the 10th floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. The food was delicious and the view was very nice. It was so great to see family!
We have a big trip coming up next weekend! We are going down to New Mexico for the wedding of David Dornbos and Jesi Hale. We are looking forward to celebrating with them and seeing many of our friends. I can't take any work off, so we'll be spending most of the 2 1/2 days on the road. I'm looking forward to some relaxing time on the road for reading more of the book my Grandma VanWyk wrote. She wrote a book using all of the letters she wrote to family members beginning after her marriage. Reading about her life in New Jersey raising 6 boys and a girl has been so interesting. Thanks for writing this book Grandma!
I think that's all for now!